Fifty years ago this week Cassius Clay, aka Muhammad Ali, knocked out Sonny Liston in the first minute of round one of their world heavyweight championship fight. The crowd of 4,000 were left shocked with the quickness of the ending.

Later in the week, Morganetta the elephant was greeted by 1,000 children and parents as she arrived at the Forest Park zoo. A gift from the Melha Shrine Temple, she flew in from Thailand via Paris and Boston.

Ten years later, Bobby Unser won his second Indy 500 in a race that was stopped 65 miles short of completion due to a thunderstorm. Bobby, 41, joined his younger brother Al as a two-time winner of the race. The days favorite A.J. Foyt, failed to win his fourth Indy. Unser won the first time seven years earlier.

These are some of the headlines you'll see from Page 1 of The Republican and its predecessors over the past fifty years for the week of May 24 - May 30. Each week I'll put together a slideshow of Page 1 images from selected years over the course of that week. We're starting with a look back at one, five, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, with Page 1s from each day of the week for those years.

The slideshow for May 24 - May 30 is embedded at the top of this article.

John Balloons of Westboro does a backflip Saturday at commencement ceremonies of the University of Massachusetts. Inset, Gumby, a 1960's cartoon character, also attends the graduation accompanied by senior Andrew Halper of Clark, N.J.

This week is a time of college graduations, Memorial Day ceremonies and holiday weekend travel. Unfortunately, with an increase number of holiday travelers on the highway, the number of highway fatalities was watched and reported both statewide and nationally.

Five years ago this week the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-1 to revoke the charter of the Robert M. Hughes Academy. The board cited management upheavels and wide spread MCAS cheating on the previous years exam. The school originally opened in 1999.

And a year ago, the Norman Rockwell painting "The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room)" sold at Christie's auction in New York for $22.6 million. The painting shows Ted Williams as an awkward newcomer to the locker room.

You'll find with looking through the slideshow, that while many stories come and go, many of the issues and topics that affected lives in the past, continue to have an impact on our lives today.

Copies of these and other stories can be found in the online archives. Links to the archives are at the bottom of the page at www.masslive.com/republican

The historic archive includes stories prior to 1989, and the Newsbank archive covers 1988 through the present day.

