May 25, 2013: Listeners tuning in to 99 Hits in Potsdam on Friday morning looking for Conway Twitty, George Strait and Garth Brooks instead found Prince, Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi, as the station kicked off a new era, becoming B-99.3. Station Manager John Winter said that the change was a decision made by the new ownership, Martz Communications Inc., Denver, and that it’s one he is excited about and looking forward to being a part of. “There are five country music stations in this area and it really fragmented the market,” Mr. Winter said. “We wanted to come in and do something different, something that no one else was doing.”

25 years ago

May 25, 1998: Helen Thomas felt a little guilty in accepting an honorary degree from Potsdam State University College Sunday. “I am profoundly honored to receive this honorary degree, but admit to some guilt, knowing that I did not have to study and panic to achieve the academic excellence of the graduates today,” she said. Ms. Thomas, White House correspondent for United Press International, told the 640 graduates that they should strive to make this country a better place to live for everyone.

50 years ago

May 25, 1973: Wayne Monnat, son of Mr. and Mrs. Niles Monnat, 5304 Rural Ave., has been accepted into the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is to report to Washington, D.C., June 25. He will be a June graduate of Lowville Academy and Central School.

75 years ago

May 25, 1948: Miss Mary Jane Whalen was crowned queen of the annual junior prom of the Potsdam High School Saturday evening in the civic center, and with her escort, Ivan Lashomb, led the grand march. Miss Whalen was selected queen of the event by the student body of high school from a group of three candidates. The other candidates, the Misses Margaret Laramy and Barbara Forbes, acted as the queen’s attendants. This marked the first year, the junior class of the high school has selected a queen to reign over the annual affair. Miss Whalen is the daughter of Mrs. Jane Whalen, R.N., of Grant Street.

100 years ago

May 25, 1923: The A.S. Cruikshank Company Inc. opened its new dry goods store on Ford Street in Ogdensburg yesterday. The company has leased the store formerly occupied by the Payne Hardware company and has effected numerous improvements and alterations to make it suitable to the dry goods trade. A new front has been installed and the floor lowered to the sidewalk grade. The head of the new company is Allen S. Cruikshank, formerly with N. Frank’s Sons and later with the Anthony firm in Watertown. He returned from Watertown several months ago to enter business here.

125 years ago

May 25, 1898: The Watertown High School baseball team will play its first game this year at Glen Park next Saturday with the Gouverneur High School Team. The W.H.S. team is practicing daily and will put up a fair game. Admission, 25 cents.

150 years ago

May 25, 1873: Roswell P. Flower is in town and hale and hearty.

The world

wikipedia.org

1934 – Near Callander, Ontario, Canada, the Dionne quintuplets are born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne; they will be the first quintuplets to survive infancy.

1936 – Alan Turing submits On Computable Numbers for publication.

1937 – Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded.

11996 – U.S. President Bill Clinton’s former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.