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Local history
50 years ago: 1973
Blair County Judge Robert C. Habersroh was holding a hearing on a contempt of court charge brought by Boyer Bros. Candy against Baker and Confectionery Workers International of America Local 2B, which was on a 98-day-old strike against the Altoona candymaker.
25 years ago: 1998
An Altoona organization called Youth Outreach was asking the public to help find it a permanent home. With Jim Baldwin as director and about 400 members, it operated out of the Second Avenue United Methodist Church and sponsored events like dances.
10 years ago: 2013
Finance Director Earl Strohm became the new Altoona City Manager upon the retirement of Joseph Weakland, complicated by the city being in the Act 47 financially distressed program.
World history
Today's highlight in history:
On Aug. 4, 1944, 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank was arrested with her sister, parents and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. (Anne and her sister, Margot, died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.)
On this date:
– In 1790, the U.S. Coast Guard had its beginnings as President George Washington signed a measure authorizing a group of revenue cutters to enforce tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling.
– In 1830, plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
– In 1916, the United States reached agreement with Denmark to purchase the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
– In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.