In the news on this date: Feb. 5
Local history
50 years ago: 1975
A group called WDS, or Widowed, Divorced or Separated, held its first meeting at the Slep Building at the Penn State Altoona Campus, with instructor of sociology Malcolm Hill as adviser. Single people were also invited.
25 years ago: 2000
Fingerprints were being used at Penn Cambria High School for the students’ private lunch sale system, developed by Food Service Solutions of Altoona Inc. and Intelnet Inc. of State College.
10 years ago: 2015
Tyrone Regional Health Network and ProCare Health Systems combined to form a foundation to handle the services Easter Seals of Western and Central PA used to provide before they recently pulled out of Altoona.
— Compiled by Tim Doyle
World history
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2025. There are 329 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On Feb. 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump, bringing to a close the third presidential trial in American history. Though a majority of senators expressed unease with Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine that resulted in the two articles of impeachment, just one Republican, Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with the GOP and voted to convict.
On this date:
— In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an act that severely curtailed Asian immigration and mandated immigrant literacy testing.
— In 1918, more than 200 people were killed during World War I when the Cunard liner SS Tuscania, which was transporting over 2,000 American troops to Europe, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Irish Sea.
— In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell stepped onto the surface of the moon in the first of two lunar excursions.
— In 1973, services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for U.S. Army Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam ceasefire took effect.
— In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, granting workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family emergencies.
— In 1994, white separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Mississippi, of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963 and was sentenced to life in prison.
— In 2017, Tom Brady led one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history, highlighted by a spectacular Julian Edelman catch that helped lift New England from a 25-point deficit against the Atlanta Falcons to the Patriots’ fifth Super Bowl victory, 34-28; it was the first Super Bowl to end in overtime.
— In 2023, Beyoncé won her 32nd Grammy to become the most decorated artist in the history of the award.
— The Associated Press