Local history

50 years ago: 1974

Marie Hoover and Isabel Feathers were welcomed as new members of the Community Friendship Club, made up of senior citizens of the Llyswen, Eldorado and Garden Heights areas of Altoona. They met at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church and the latest project was making toys for children at the Williamsburg Home.

25 years ago: 1999

Blair County Prison Warden John J. Prebish announced an emergency response team would be formed at the prison after a series of incidents between the inmates and guards that year. About one half of the guards there, 24, volunteered for the team.

10 years ago: 2014

State Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, was to hold a meeting at Graystone Court Villas in Bellemead on changing the state’s pension system, which faced billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is the 324th day of 2024. There are 42 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

On this date:

— In 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.

— In 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second crewed landing on the moon.

— In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.

— In 1985, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.

— In 1999, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr testified before the House Judiciary Committee during impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton.

— In 2004, in one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history, Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest) and Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands and fought with Detroit Pistons fans after a fan threw a drink at Artest, forcing officials to end the Pacers’ 97-82 win with 45.9 seconds left.

— In 2017, Charles Manson, the cult leader behind the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles in 1969, died in a California hospital at the age of 83 after nearly a half-century in prison.

— In 2022, five people were killed and 25 injured when a shooter opened fire at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.

— The Associated Press