25 YEARS AGO — 1984

  New York's highest court strikes down the state's death-penalty law but upholds the conviction of Lemuel Smith in the 1981 slaying of Great Meadow guard Donna Payant of Dannemora. Smith will be resentenced on a reduced second-degree murder charge.

  The Court of Appeals decision to throw out the state's death penalty is a "license to kill" for prison inmates, the state guard's union charges. The union says there is now no deterrent to killing again.

  Essex County supervisors join with the New York State Association of Counties in opposing a bill that would establish definite penalties for violations of the state's Open Meetings Law.

  The towns of Mooers and Chazy are looking favorably on a proposed local law which would authorize the town dog-control officer to pick up domestic cats deemed to be dangerous to the public.

50 YEARS AGO — 1959
  Early morning quiet is shattered by a thundering explosion touched off by leaking gas at the Quick Flame Bottled Gas Corp. at South Junction. The plant was wrecked and two trucks destroyed. William Buskey, 25, of Peasleeville, an employee, was slightly injured.

  The State Conservation Department starts preliminary work on the construction of a bathhouse at Cumberland Bay Campsite. The bathhouse is part of a $240,000 development project started at the popular campground.

  Clinton County was a suburb of Montreal and other Canadian communities as Dominion Day motor routes led toward Plattsburgh. Customs border stations set a new one-day record for clearances, accounting for upwards of 16,000 cars and an estimated 83,000 passengers during a period of a little more than 18 daylight hours.

  The Plattsburgh Municipal Lighting Department shows a net profit of $199,263 for the business year ending Dec. 31, 1958. This is an increase of $17,407.12 or 9.57 percent.

75 YEARS AGO — 1934
  Vincent DeLeo, alias Vincent Amerigo, Clinton Prison inmate, is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing the week of Aug. 5 for the murder of Daniel Nickerson, prison guard, stabbed to death March 25.

  Police are investigating a mysterious blast that tore a large hole on Demers Boulevard in Tupper Lake near the Oval Wood Dish plant.

  The Gables, a summer resort at Long Lake, is leveled by fire. The loss is estimated at $15,000.

  Approximately 1,300 people attend the annual picnic of Notre Dame Church in Malone.

100 YEARS AGO — 1909
  Catholics from all parts of the United States and Canada gather at Cliff Haven to assist at the pontifical high Mass celebrated by the Rev. Bishop Colton of Buffalo in honor of the national holiday and the opening of the Tercentenary celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain.

  Two carloads of iron beds and cots have been received and will be placed in city school buildings to provide accommodations for visitors to the Tercentenary celebration. Comfortable hotel-like settings will be provided for at least 1,000 visitors.

  The superintendent of the state hospital for tuberculosis at Ray Brook says the shortage in the accounts of O.E. Droege of New York, the missing bookkeeper, is $9,856. No clue has been found to his whereabouts.

  The Village of Ticonderoga is figuring on a new sewer system. The assistant engineer of the State Department says the improvements must be made to comply with state law.

— Compiled by Contributing Writer Sue Botsford, who can be reached at 834-7201 or botsford@westelcom.com.