A Look Back, May 16

50 Years Ago

■Spokesmen in Amherst say they were pleased by yesterday’s announcement that officials of the John F. Kennedy Library Corp. have narrowed site choices to the University of Massachusetts campuses at Amherst and Boston. Amherst Selectmen Chair Nancy Eddy commented today, “This is a real shot in the arm for the university. It’s a real plum for the university no matter what campus is decided upon.”

■The City Council approved a resolution last night calling on the school committee to take steps to phase out the Academically Talented (AT) and elementary French programs from the department’s elementary school curriculum. Council President Robert R. Patenaude said that he thought it was “irresponsible” to spend $53,000 a year teaching elementary school students French when there are 500 Spanish speaking families in the city.

25 Years Ago

■Losing a lane at night and enduring the noise from jackhammers ripping the deck from the Coolidge Bridge are sacrifices motorists and neighbors seem willing to make, for the sake of a wider span. Tonight, a crew will return for its third week of nighttime working building a temporary deck over the bridge’s two eastbound lanes.

■On Mother’s Day, artist Judy Chicago told graduating seniors at Smith College that they are unlikely to be able to combine careers with motherhood. “I believe that one of the pernicious lies that have been told to your generation is that you can ‘have it all,’” said Chicago, who is regarded as the founder of the feminist art movement. “I always knew that this was not possible.”

10 Years Ago

■Answering a clear call from city residents, Mayor David J. Narkewicz is pledging to forge ahead in the next six months to develop a voluntary payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program, commonly referred to as a PILOT program, with the city’s largest nonprofit institutions.

■It’s not by much, but Northampton’s budget proposed for next year would decrease by 1.28 percent from the current year’s spending. Mayor David J. Narkewicz unveiled his fiscal year 2016 budget Friday, a plan that tallies up at $103,087,380 for the year that begins July 1.