In the news on this date: January 20
Local history
50 years ago: 1975
Special Services for the Visually Handicapped and Mr. and Mrs. Leo Karcher of Hollidaysburg held an Optacon Program at the Logan Valley Mall to raise funds for the Optacon, an electronic device that converts printed images to be felt and read by the blind.
25 years ago: 2000
Striking Red Cross workers in West Virginia, members of the Service Employees Union Local 1199, had taken out radio ads asking people in Pennsylvania, including Blair County, and at least three other states, not to donate blood. Some people said the ad had the opposite effect and motivated them to give blood.
10 years ago: 2015
Retired Logan Township police sergeant John Flinn, who had 36 years of service, came out of retirement to become acting chief while Chief Ron Heller was on leave.
— Compiled by Tim Doyle
World history
Today is Monday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2025. There are 345 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
On this date:
— In 1936, Britain’s King George V died after his physician injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death. The king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
— In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term as president, becoming the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20; prior to the adoption of the 20th Amendment in 1933, presidential terms began on March 4.
— In 1961, in his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy urged Americans, “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
— In 1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
— In 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s first Black president.
— In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
— The Associated Press