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Local history
50 years ago
Oct. 20, 1973
When about a dozen trash cans were vandalized at the Horseshoe Curve, officials first thought it was vandals but evidence showed it was bears from Wopsononock Mountain.
25 years ago
Oct. 20, 1998
U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter announced that $2.5 million in federal funds had been secured for the Altoona Area School District to build an Advanced Science and Technology Research Academy for students to study space travel and exploration.
10 years ago
Oct. 20, 2013
Carrying blue balloons, teams walked at Peoples Natural Gas Field for the Central PA Walk Now for Autism Speaks. Brett Spitale, executive director of Greater PA Autism Speaks, said about 400 people were expected to walk.
-- Compiled by Tim Doyle
World history
Today is Friday, Oct. 20, the 293rd day of 2023. There are 72 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Oct. 20, 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.
On this date:
-- In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
-- In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration in the U.S. motion picture industry.
-- In 1967, a jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven men of violating the civil rights of slain civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner; the seven received prison terms ranging from 3 to 10 years.
-- In 1973, in what would become known as the "Saturday Night Massacre," special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned.
-- In 1976, 78 people were killed when the Norwegian tanker Frosta rammed the commuter ferry George Prince on the Mississippi River near New Orleans.
-- The Associated Press