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News 2 You: Remembering a triumphant return for the 914th, the Friendship Festival and the once popular pocket calculator

Dave McKinley has our weekly walk back in time when all those stories, and more, were all News 2 You!

BUFFALO, N.Y. — 10 Years ago this week in 2013

Scandal continued to rock Albany where it was revealed NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a powerful democrat, had been secretly paying off women who made sexual harassment claims against him. 

Carl Paladino was sworn in to take a seat on the Buffalo School Board, the Sabres made Rasmus Ristolainen their first pick in the NHL draft, and New England Patriots Tight End Aaron Hernandez was arrested for murder.

The Gus Macker three-on-three basketball tournament was still being held downtown and drawing 4,000 players, and Lockport got 5.5 inches of rain in a single day, causing widespread flooding this week in 2013.

20 Years ago this week in 2003

The polish veterans memorial was dedicated on Buffalo's waterfront and unveiled in what amounted to a "do-over" of sorts, and the subject of this week's News 2 You Pop Quiz is: do you recall what was wrong with the monument, that caused those who sponsored it to send it back to the stone mason for corrections before the memorial was finally erected to the satisfaction of all?

(Watch the conclusion of the video in this story to find out the answer

Remember, this was the same week the 914th tactical airlift group, after serving months overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, returned triumphant to their home base in Niagara Falls and into the arms of loved ones.

It was also the week when a deal was signed between the City of Niagara Falls and Niagara Falls Redevelopment, allowing the later purchase of more than 100 acres of properties on the east side of the Falls, on the condition the group produce $24 million worth of developments in the next two years. We're still waiting.

It was a time when school-sponsored, all-night post-prom and graduation parties were starting to catch on as a means to keep kids from drinking and driving, and when the final graduation was held at Buffalo Kensington High School.

Ten years after leaving the mayor's office, the late Jimmy Griffin was making a comeback, by launching what would be a successful bid for Common Council.

Hollywood icon Katherine Hepburn died at the age of 96, this week in 2003

30 years ago this week in 1993

The toll to cross the Peace Bridge was just $1.25, and several made the crossing to attend the long ago Friendship Festival, a multi-day affair once held in both Buffalo and Fort Erie over the course of several days which encompassed both the birthdays of the United States and Canada. The festival eventually succumbed to financial difficulties.

Many of us kept track of our finances through the use of the once ubiquitous Texas Instruments pocket calculator and looked up records stored on microfiche.

A Maryland man named Kirk Bloodworth made criminal justice history, as the first ever death row inmate to be exonerated and released through DNA evidence.

Julia Roberts and Lyell Lovett announced their engagement after only three weeks of dating. Their marriage would only last two years.

Zima, a clear malt liquor, was first introduced on store shelves, and David Letterman did his last Late Night show on NBC before moving to CBS this week in 1993...when it was all, News 2 You!

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