Indianapolis, IN
Retro Indy: Every 50 years NYE starts a national birthday celebration
New Year’s Day 2026 will mark the beginning of the nation’s semiquincentennial, or 250th birthday year. Throughout U.S. history, each 50-year increment since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 has sparked a year-long celebration. In many of these years, the nation’s birthday party kicked off with festivities on New Year’s Eve.
For the nation’s 200th birthday in 1976, a crowd of 40,000 people in Philadelphia started the year huddled outside in the frigid December weather to watch the nation’s most famous symbol of liberty slide down a ramp outside Independence Hall and roll by on a cart.
The historic move of the Liberty Bell from its home for the past 223 years to a new glass pavilion 100 yards away took place at midnight on New Year’s Eve to mark the start of the nation’s bicentennial celebration.
Although the Liberty Bill remained silent during its short journey, Indianapolis residents heard bells that evening. The Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis and the Knights of Columbus encouraged area churches to ring their bells continuously for 15 minutes at midnight as 1975 slipped into 1976 as a public expression of thankfulness for the freedom of worship guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and to celebrate the beginning of America’s 200th birthday year.
Offering a more secular way to ring in 1976, Indianapolis Jaycees hosted a $25-per-couple bicentennial party at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Attendees were treated to a bottle of champagne, breakfast and the chance to win a vacation at one of four historic East Coast cities. Prizes were awarded for “the most patriotic costume,” although what exactly constituted a patriotic costume was not outlined in the invitation.
The downtown Holiday Inn featured double rooms for only $17.76 on New Year’s Eve, plus a champagne buffet and dancing for an additional $2 per couple. Any guest who woke up on New Year’s Day 1976 with a hazy memory of the reason for the previous evening’s festivities would certainly have been reminded as soon as they saw the 333 bicentennial signs that had been installed on utility poles in the Mile Square by city workers on New Year’s Eve.
The celebrations marking the start of the nation’s sesquicentennial 50 years earlier were a little drier though no less festive on New Year’s Eve 1925. Prohibition was in effect, and two days before the holiday law enforcement officials raided 40 pool rooms, drug stores and other locations suspected of liquor violations. Indianapolis residents were warned that more arrests would follow on New Year’s Eve.
The crackdown on illegal drinking did not dampen the festivities in downtown Indianapolis. Approximately 1,200 people crowded into the Columbia Club for a dinner-dance, while a similar number partied at the Athletic Club. Some hotels hosted parties, and the Broadway Burlesque theater featured a midnight performance by the Red Hot Snappy Girly Girl Company.
But the highlight of New Year’s Eve 1925 was listening to the ringing of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia at the stroke of midnight to celebrate 150 years of American independence. Indianapolis stores experienced a run on radios during the Christmas season, and many local residents hosted radio parties in their homes where friends could dance to music, guzzle bootleg beverages, and hear the Liberty Bell ring.
Although the Liberty Bell was quiet on New Year’s Eve 1875, bells rang in Indianapolis to celebrate the first day of the nation’s centennial in 1876 after local leaders proposed “a general ringing of bells, firing of salutes, and flinging to the breeze the Stars and Stripes.”
The city’s businessmen were also invited to the Board of Trade at 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day 1876 “to celebrate by appropriate exercises” the start of the centennial year. Given the city’s abundance of taverns and saloons, it’s probably safe to say that the only sort of exercises that were appropriate for the morning after New Year’s Eve did not involve actual strenuous physical activity.
Libby Cierzniak is a retired attorney who has written extensively about Indianapolis history for HistoricIndianapolis.com and in her own blog, Indypolitan.com. She is a frequent guest on Hoosier History Live and a regular contributor to Retro Indy. Contact her via Indypolitan.com.
INDIANAPOLIS — One person is in critical condition following a shooting on Indy’s near east side.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, around 8:10 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on reports of a person shot.
Upon arrival, police located a 50-year-old man with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound.
He is currently reported to be in extremely critical condition.
No additional information has been made available at the time of this article’s publication.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on June 17 gave AES the nod to raise electricity rates enough to earn an additional $71 million each year, a decision that drew reproof from Indiana lawmakers who called it another blow to cost-burdened consumers.
The approved rate represents less than half of the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It’s also less than the $91 million increase proposed in an October settlement agreement between AES, the city of Indianapolis and major electricity consumers like Kroger and Walmart.
But the new rate is still significantly more than what the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the state agency representing ratepayers in the case, recommended in September. The OUCC’s proposal would have capped AES’s annual operating revenue at $21 million less than the current level.
The rate increase authorizes AES to earn a total of nearly $2 billion each year, or an estimated $384 million in profit.
The higher base rate comes as a double whammy for Indianapolis-area households, who are already paying more for electricity this summer after AES temporarily raised rates to account for higher-than-anticipated fuel costs during last winter’s storms. The increase also arrives against the backdrop of inflation, which rose to a three-year high last month, and surging gas prices due to the war in Iran.
Gov. Mike Braun wrote in a Wednesday post to X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the IURC’s approval of the rate increase.
“Hoosiers have spent years tightening their belts and making tough financial decisions,” Braun wrote. “It’s time for utility companies to do the same.”
The IURC’s decision also drew fire from the other side of the aisle. In a June 17 news release, five Democrats representing Indianapolis in the state Senate – J.D. Ford, Andrea Hunley, La Keisha Jackson, Fady Qaddoura, and Greg Taylor – chastised Indiana’s Republican supermajority for failing to rein in rising utility costs.
“Hoosiers pay more. Monopoly utilities collect more. And the leaders in the super-majority who promise affordability over and over again show those are just empty words,” the news release said. “Instead, they continue to defend a system that takes more and more out of our paychecks.”
The consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition also slammed the rate increase. Ben Inskeep, CAC’s program director, said the decision left him “less optimistic that this commission is willing to do things differently and to actually hold utilities accountable.”
He said the IURC should have penalized AES for issues that plagued customers after the utility updated its billing system in 2023, including duplicated withdrawals for the same monthly bill.
The rate increase will take effect in two phases, with rates going up in July 2026 and January 2027. AES officials anticipate the hikes “will be less than $5 per month per phase” for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to a Wednesday news release from the utility.
“The IURC’s decision reflects a thorough, transparent process and balances the need for continued investment in the electric system with a focus on customer affordability,” the news release stated.
Under a state law that Braun signed in February, AES cannot ask for another increase to its base rate until January 2030 — though electricity bills could still go up for other reasons, like the fuel adjustment charge hitting consumers this month.
Three members of the five-member IURC signed off on the rate increase: Andy Zay, David Veleta, and David Ziegner. Commissioner Bob Deig dissented. Commissioner Anthony Swinger recused himself from the decision because he worked on the AES rate case for the OUCC before he was appointed to the IURC by Braun in January.
“None of this was taken lightly,” Zay, the IURC’s chair, said at the Wednesday hearing, adding that the commission and its staff had carefully weighed concerns about affordability. The commissioners did not go into further detail at the hearing.
But the commission’s order shows some of the debates that played out during the rate case. One point of contention was AES’s authorized return on equity — that is, how much the utility can earn each year in profits. Other disputes hinged on how AES forecasts its operating expenses.
The OUCC accused AES of including more than 100 “phantom hires,” vacant positions it did not necessarily intend to fill in its calculations. Last year, AES said that the rising costs of vegetation management, or trimming trees around power lines, also drove the need to raise rates. The OUCC recommended keeping vegetation management costs flat.
One factor that’s not driving higher prices? Data centers.
AES does not currently provide service to any data centers and did not include them in its calculations, AES president Brandi Davis-Handy said in testimony before the IURC.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
Interactive radar | Weather alerts by county
WATCH LIVE COVERAGE
(WRTV) — A tornado watch has been issued through 1 a.m. EDT Thursday for much of Indiana, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said.
The watch area covers 47 of Indiana’s 92 counties, and includes Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Counties in the watch area are Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, Decatur, Delaware, Fountain, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Randolph, Rush, Shelby, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warren, and White.
WRTV Meteorologist Ryan Morse says Wednesday afternoon’s rain was the first of two rounds coming to the Hoosier state. A line of supercells were expected to form in Illinois and travel into central Indiana.
In neighboring Illinois, dozens of counties are under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CDT/11 p.m. EST.
All threats of severe weather were on the table: damaging wind, strong tornadoes, large hail, and flooding.
Severe storms should exit Indiana in the early morning hours.
WISH-TV Meteorologist Keith Gibson says people should have multiple ways of getting alerts and have electronic devices fully charged in case they lose power.
The next chance for rain after these storms could be on Saturday.
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