Parade Commander First Sgt. Charles Ofiesh, center, prepares for the Veterans Day Parade on Eighth Avenue in Altoona in November 1996. In the front row are veterans of World War II and the Korean War with members of the 28th Division National Guard Band behind them. The photo was taken and submitted by Charles J. LaMark of Altoona.

Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.

Local news on this date

Nov. 8, 1950

Dr. Richard E. Sylvers, internationally known mentalist called “The Mental Marvel” and appearing at the Strand Movie Theater in downtown Altoona for one week, was holding a special “women-only matinee” to answer intimate questions about marriage, love, relationships and life in general.

Nov. 8, 1975

The fourth annual Jaffa Shrine Majorette Spectacular, Carol Riley of Carol’s School of Baton producing, was scheduled for Nov. 20 with 14 high school squads and six junior high school squads participating and music by Darwin Bistline.

Nov. 8, 2000

Altoona Area High School student council adviser David Aboud was to join four current and two graduated students to participate in the groundbreaking for the National World War II Memorial on the Washington, D.C., National Mall.

Nov. 8, 2015

The Mount Aloysius College men’s soccer team beat PSU Behrend 4-3 to win the school’s first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship (AMCC) in what was called the penalty kick shootout. Hollidaysburg grad Justin Hann blocked the final two PSU attempts for the win.

Nov. 9, 1950

The Art Alliance of Altoona was to hold its first exhibition at the American Association of University Women headquarters at 2009 West Chestnut Ave., many of the paintings on loan from New York City galleries and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

The Delta Nu Omega fraternity of the Altoona School of Commerce held a Halloween Party at Dell Delight Park in Hollidaysburg and displayed their new 16mm sound machine picture projector for the showing of educational films.

Nov. 9, 1975

Altoona based piano-organ players, Barbara Weller Crain and Linda Wogan Wilt, known as The Joyful Noise, were to perform at the Music Makers Series at the Penn State Altoona All-Faiths Chapel.

The Red Bull Inn in Duncansville was offering on Monday night, after ordering a full meal, a movie to watch at no charge called “Movie Bargain,” produced by the Cinemette Co.

Nov. 9, 2000

Almost all of the 2,500 voters registered in the Frankstown Township 3rd District seemed to have shown up at the same time as time in lines went to more than an hour, and police had to be called to direct traffic. Nationally, George W. Bush was declared winner of the 41st U.S. Presidency.

Many local elementary schools, including Our Lady of Lourdes and Baker School, allowed their students to take part in the national presidential elections. Like the adult voters, the students elected George W. Bush.

Nov. 9, 2015

Two new veterans memorials were to be dedicated on Veterans Day, in South Woodbury Township in Bedford County and at the American Legion Home and then Soldiers Park in Tyrone. Tyrone hoped to add Revolutionary soldiers.

The U.S. Armed Forces Mothers Squad, Patty Davis president and Joyce Villani historian, helped plan a Wounded Warriors Trout Fishing Project. In other news Mount Aloysius College was designated a 2016 Military Friendly School by a firm called Victory Media, which published G.I. Jobs, STEM JobsSM and Military Spouses.

National, world news on this date

Nov. 8

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln won reelection as he defeated Democratic challenger George B. McClellan.

In 1950, during the Korean War, the first air-to-air combat between jet warplanes took place as U.S. Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shot down a North Korean MiG-15.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the U.S. presidential election over Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

In 2000, a statewide recount began in Florida, which emerged as critical in deciding the winner of the 2000 presidential election between Republican George W. Bush and Democratic Vice President Al Gore. The recount would officially end on Dec. 12 upon orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, delivering Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency to Bush.

Nov. 9

In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt made the first trip abroad of any sitting U.S. president in order to observe construction of the Panama Canal.

In 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as thousands of Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in a pogrom or deliberate persecution that became known as “Kristallnacht.”

In 1965, the great Northeast blackout began with a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours, leaving 30 million people in seven states and part of Canada without electricity.

In 2023, surgeons at Langone Health in New York announced that they performed the world’s first transplant of an entire human eye in May of that year, operating on a man whose face was badly damaged in an accident with high-voltage power lines.

Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.