MOMENTS IN TIME

• On April 29, 1944, the last "Our Gang" film, "Dancing Romeo," is released. The first film, featuring a band of mischievous youngsters, was produced in 1922. In all, more than 100 "Our Gang" films were made. Later, they were shown as TV comedies under the name "The Little Rascals."

• On April 30, 1927, the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women's federal prison, opens in Alderson, W.Va. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought there, with the vast majority imprisoned for drug and alcohol charges imposed during the Prohibition era.

• On May 2, 1972, Steven Spielberg begins filming "Jaws." The production, which used three mechanical sharks to great effect, enthralled audiences and grossed $458 million in its theatrical release.

• On May 1, 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building. The entire 102-story building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing fourand a-half stories a week.

• On May 3, 1960, the musical comedy "The Fantasticks" opens in an off-Broadway playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village. The show, about a young man and woman whose ostensibly feuding parents are actually scheming to bring the couple together, became the longest-running musical of all time and is still running today.