• The reception for the first K-12 Art Show featuring student work from the six Belmont public schools will take place at 6 p.m. Please join the artists and their families for this Opening Reception in the Belmont Gallery of Art, third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex.

• The Community Path Advisory Committee will be meeting at 7 p.m. in the Belmont Gallery of Art on the third floor of the Homer Building which is located in the Town Hall complex. They will be discussing releasing the committee’s final report on June 6 and the June 18 public forum.

• Graduating seniors are going on their annual cruise this afternoon. A three-hour cruise!

• Eighty years ago today,  the Dionne quintuplets – Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Émilie and Marie – were born in Quebec, the first quintuplets to survive infancy. In the 1930s, their popularity rivaled the biggest movie stars. Annette and Cécile are celebrating their 80th birthday today.

• Due to the Memorial Day holiday, garbage and recycling pickups are a day delayed. So if you thought you missed your “Tuesday” trash day, you can breath again.

• Join the new Belmont Veterans’ Services Officer Hsiu-Ann Tom at the Beech Street Center at 1:15 p.m. for an informational meeting about benefits for veterans, surviving spouses and dependents.

• Pre-School Storytime will be held at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.

• Learn the timeless craft of mosaics at the Intergenerational Mosaic Workshop being held today, Wednesday and Friday at the Beech Street Center at 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. For residents 6 and older; a $5 fee for each class which is limited to 14 participants. Assemble small pieces of colored glass, stone, ceramics and shells to create decorative tiles, mirrors, picture frames. No experience necessary. Attend one or a series of three classes.

• Drop-in Vinyasa-style yoga classes, taught by professional instructors, at the Plymouth Congregational Church, 582 Pleasant St. starting at 9:30 a.m. All levels welcome. Bring your own mat. Free parking on Pleasant, Leonard, and in the Claflin Street Parking Lot behind Belmont Center. The classes take place in Gardner Hall, at the back of the church; enter the hall from Alexander Street entrance. $10 for the session. Child care available for $6 per child. All proceeds benefit Plymouth Nursery School. Also check out the Friday morning session.

• Today is the birthday of Julia Ward Howe in 1819 in New York City. In 1861, Howe – who was married to Samuel Gridley Howe, the founder of the Perkins School for the Blind – was inspired after visiting the new President Abraham Lincoln to write new words to the melody of “Ol’ John Brown’s Body.” The result was “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” She is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

• The Belmont Public Schools start off the Memorial Day Weekend by honoring veterans with a breakfast at Belmont High School at 8 a.m. before holding a ceremony in front of the school at 8:30 a.m. The vets will then travel to Wellington Elementary (9:15 a.m.) and then Burbank Elementary (10 a.m.) for exercises before a luncheon at the VFW Post at 310 Trapelo Rd. at 11:30 p.m.

• “A World of Celebrations” comes alive with floral arrangements at the Belmont Garden Club’s Flower Show taking place today, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. Featuring  designs for France’s Bastille Day, China’s New Year, Italy’s Carnival of Venice, the show will also include a horticulture division.

• Eighty years ago today, in 1934, the bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were ambushed by lawmen and killed along a road in Black Lake, Louisana, marking the end of the romanticized “public enemy” era of celebrity criminals.

• The 7th & 8th Grade Chorus and Orchestra Concert will take place at 7 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School’s auditorium.

• In its first combined kindergarten through 12th grade show, the annual Belmont Public Schools Art Show gets underway today at the Belmont Gallery of Art located on the third floor of the Homer Municipal Building in the Town Hall complex.

• Infant Lapsit Storytime at the Belmont Public Library is for infants and pre-walkers. Come enjoy songs, finger plays and rhymes chosen especially for our littlest readers. The fun starts in the Flett Room at 10:30 a.m.

• It’s an Early Release Wednesday for all of Belmont’s six schools. 10:30 a.m. for High School, 11 a.m. for Chenery Middle School and 11:40 a.m. for the elementary schools with the exception of the Winn Brook which releases at 10 minutes until noon.

• The Belmont Book Discussion Group will discuss “Blindness” by Jose Saramago at its meeting at 3 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Flett Room. Everyone is welcome to attend. Copies of the book can be requested through the library catalog or call the library Reference staff at 617-993-2870.

• The Belmont Historical Society is holding its monthly meeting from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Claflin Room at the Belmont Public Library.

• Belmont’s financial “watchdog”, the Warrant Committee, will be discussing the Capital Budget Committee’s budget (those long-range “big” ticket items) as well as the proposed new Minuteman Career and Technical High School regional agreement with the town and proposed changes to the town’s bylaws in response to a citizens petitioned moratorium on the demolition of single-family homes which would be replaced with two-family homes within the General Residence Zoning Districts at its 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Chenery Middle School. 

• On this day in 1927,  Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Here is the New York Times report:

Paris, May 21 — Lindbergh did it. Twenty minutes after 10 o’clock tonight suddenly and softly there slipped out of the darkness a gray-white airplane as 25,000 pairs of eyes strained toward it. At 10:24 the Spirit of St. Louis landed and lines of soldiers, ranks of policemen and stout steel fences went down before a mad rush as irresistible as the tides of ocean.

“Well, I made it,” smiled Lindbergh, as the little white monoplane came to a halt in the middle of the field and the first vanguard reached the plane. Lindbergh made a move to jump out. Twenty hands reached for him and lifted him out as if he were a baby. Several thousands in a minute were around the plane. Thousands more broke the barriers of iron, rails round the field, cheering wildly.

• The Planning Board will hold a community meeting at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School concerning a zoning amendment it is presenting to Town Meeting in June that attempts to address citizen’s concerns raised by the one-year moratorium passed at last year’s Town Meeting that prevents tearing down single-family structures in the general residence sections of town to replace them with multi-family buildings.

• The Belmont High School Club Rugby team will host Boston College High School in the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization’s Division 1 state championship semi-finals at 7 p.m. at Harris Field on Concord Avenue. If the team is victorious, they will defend their title at Fort Devens on Saturday.

• Examine live caterpillars, see butterfly wings under a microscope and learn which common butterflies are likely to be spotted in Belmont over the summer as Habitat naturalist Barbara Brown will give a free talk about “Caterpillars, Butterflies & Moths” from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. at the Beech Street Center. 

• Adult development expert Paul Kampas comes to the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. at 5 p.m. to discuss “Love Relationships Across the Generations: A Community Conversation” presenting an adult development model of healthy love relationships and to co-facilitate a conversation about how younger and older generations may have differing perspectives.

• Pre-School Storytime will be held at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.

• The Belmont Public Library’s Children’s Room is holding Storytime for 2’s and 3’s.  Due to overwhelming popularity, this storytime is offered both at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. Bring your little ones for stories, songs, and more. Both programs will take place in the Flett Room, across from the Children’s Room. 

• The Zoning Board of Appeals will be holding a public meeting Monday, May 19, at 7 p.m. in the Belmont Gallery of Art (located in the Homer Municipal Building in the Town Hall complex) to discuss the application to relocate Starbucks Coffee from its present location in Cushing Square to a store front near the intersection of Belmont Street and Trapelo Road. The move, which will last for approximately a year, is necessary due to the construction of the retail, residential and parking development known as Cushing Village.

• The Planning Board will hold a community meeting on Tuesday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at the Chenery Middle School concerning a zoning amendment it will present to Town Meeting in June that attempts to address citizen’s concerns revolving around the one-year moratorium on tearing down single-family structures and replacing them with multifamily buildings.

• “A World of Celebrations” comes alive with floral arrangements at the Belmont Garden Club’s Flower Show taking place on Friday May 23, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 24, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. Featuring  designs for France’s Bastille Day, China’s New Year, Italy’s Carnival of Venice, the show will also include a horticulture division.

• The Belmont High School Club Rugby team will host Boston College High School in the Massachusetts Youth Rugby Organization’s Division 1 state championship semi-finals on Tuesday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at Harris Field on Concord Avenue.

• The Belmont League of Women Voters will be holding a warrant briefing for the budget sessions of Town Meeting on Thursday, May 22 at 7 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. An opportunity to get your questions answered before the June sessions of Town Meeting. The budget will be covered, as well as other articles not handled in the May meetings. Co-sponsored by the Warrant Committee and the Belmont League of Women Voters Education Fund.