Local History

50 years ago: 1975

A Penn Central Railroad repair car called an injector, which replaced the wooden ties beneath the steel rails and replaced six workers that used to do the job, was working in Altoona. Penn Central was repairing tracks from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.

25 years ago: 2000

The National Labor Relations Board dismissed the unfair labor practice charge that the striking union there had filed against Altoona Hospital and the hospital then dropped its own charges against the union.

10 years ago: 2015

Pennsylvania began online registration for voters for the first time the previous week and the Blair County Elections Office in Hollidaysburg, Sarah Seymour director, said that the office had already received several dozen online registrations.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World History

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 2, the 245th day of 2025. There are 120 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On Sept. 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.

On this date:

– In 1666, the Great Fire of London began, which would destroy more than 13,000 homes and hundreds of additional structures, including St Paul’s Cathedral, over the ensuing three days.

– In 1789, the United States Treasury Department was established.

– In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta.

– In 1935, a Category 5 hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys on Labor Day, claiming more than 400 lives.

– In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided aid to public and private education to promote learning in such fields as math and science.

– In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.

– In 1969, in what some regard as the birth of the Internet, two connected computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, passed test data through a 15-foot cable.

– In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

– In 2005, a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled into New Orleans four days after Hurricane Katrina.

– In 2013, on her fifth attempt, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.

– In 2018, a huge fire engulfed Brazil’s 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics.

– In 2019, a fire swept a vessel carrying recreational scuba divers that was anchored near an island off the Southern California coast; the captain and four other crew members were able to escape the flames, but 34 people who were trapped below died.