Local history

50 years ago: 1973

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Broad Avenue, the Rev. John J. Lafferty pastor and the Rev. Robert J. O’Donnell pastor emeritus, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a banquet at the Jaffa Mosque attended by over 600. The new church was built in 1961.

25 years ago: 1998

Beasley Manufacturing Inc., a longtime business on Pleasant Valley Boulevard that rebuilt car engines and had closed in May of that year, was to reopen with a group of local businessmen partnering with Jasper Engine Exchange Inc. of Jasper, Ind.

10 years ago: 2013

The Penn State University bomb squad responded when a bomb threat was sent to the Blair County Courthouse and residents were evacuated in a two-block radius. The threat was unfounded.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is the 297th day of 2023. There are 68 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

In 1945, the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect.

On this date:

— In 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

— In 1952, Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared in Detroit, “I shall go to Korea” as he promised to end the conflict.

— In 1972, Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s modern-era color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53.

— In 1991, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry died in Santa Monica, California, at age 70.

— In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves in Game 6.

— In 2002, authorities apprehended John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Maryland, in the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Malvo was later sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.)

— In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.

— In 2012, Hurricane Sandy roared across Jamaica and headed toward Cuba, before descending on the eastern United States.

— The Associated Press