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Local history
50 years ago: 1973
Blair County Solicitor Marion D. Patterson Jr. said that the Blair County Commissioners wanted to "get out of the divorce business" and wanted to go to court to oppose the payment of Masters Fees. Masters determined legal grounds for divorces.
25 years ago: 1998
Bob Nickerson of Gallitzin, known as the "Jocular Juggler," was to appear on the David Letterman television show on a segment called "Stupid Human Tricks." He had already appeared on The Statler Brothers Show, America's Funniest People and the Regis and Kathy Lee Show.
10 years ago: 2013
Joseph Dodson, running for re-election as mayor of Hollidaysburg, said that five of his campaign signs had been stolen, while Council President John Stultz, also running for mayor, said that over a dozen of his signs had been stolen.
World history
Today's highlight in history:
On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden during a U.S. commando operation. (Because of the time difference, it was early May 2 in Pakistan, where the al-Qaida leader met his end.)
On this date:
– In 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created as a treaty merging England and Scotland took effect.
– In 1866, three days of race-related rioting erupted in Memphis, Tennessee, as white mobs targeted Black people, 46 of whom were killed, along with two white people. (The violence spurred passage of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining American citizenship and equal protection under the law.)
– In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
– In 1963, James W. Whittaker became the first American to conquer Mount Everest as he and Sherpa guide Nawang Gombu reached the summit.
– In 1964, the computer programming language BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was created by Dartmouth College professors John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz.
– In 1971, the intercity passenger rail service Amtrak went into operation.
– In 1992, on the third day of the Los Angeles riots, a visibly shaken Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, pleading, "Can we all get along?"