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Local history
50 years ago: 1973
The Mercy Mints of Mercy Hospital were sponsoring a Diamond S Rodeo at Legion Park in Hollidaysburg on July 4 as a fundraiser, with Becky Skupien as committee chairwoman. The Diamond S was believed to be the only self-contained exhibition rodeo on tour in the United States.
25 years ago: 1998
The Chicago-based American Coaster Enthusiasts donated $10,000 to the refurbishing of the Leap-the-Dips Roller Coaster at Lakemont Park, bringing their total donations to $90,000. John Kazmaier was president of the local preservation foundation. Coaster tokens were being sold at Lakemont Park for $2.50.
10 years ago: 2013
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were participating in Operation Dry Water, a boat safety program at Raystown Lake and Glendale Lake. Park Ranger Melissa Bean said there had been 44 water fatalities at Raystown since 1974.
-- Compiled by Tim Doyle
World history
Today is Tuesday, June 27, the 178th day of 2023. There are 187 days left in the year.
Today's highlight in history:
On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its strongest defense of abortion rights in a quarter-century, striking down Texas' widely replicated rules that sharply reduced abortion clinics.
On this date:
-- In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.
-- In 1880, author-lecturer Helen Keller, who lived most of her life without sight or hearing, was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
-- In 1942, the FBI announced the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs put ashore in Florida and Long Island, New York. (All were tried and sentenced to death; six were executed while two were spared for turning themselves in and cooperating with U.S. authorities.)
-- In 1944, during World War II, American forces liberated the French port of Cherbourg from the Germans.
-- In 1950, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.
-- In 1957, Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm; the official death toll from the storm was placed at 390, although a variety of state, federal and local sources have estimated the number of fatalities at between 400 and 600.
-- In 1974, President Richard Nixon opened an official visit to the Soviet Union.
-- In 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black jurist to sit on the nation's highest court, announced his retirement. (His departure led to the contentious nomination of Clarence Thomas to succeed him.)
-- In 2005, BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders that had spread fear across Wichita, Kansas, beginning in the 1970s.
-- In 2006, a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag died in a Senate cliffhanger, falling one vote short of the 67 needed to send it to states for ratification.
-- The Associated Press