Local history

50 years ago: March 26, 1975

Alan Mikula, an instructor in photography at Penn State Altoona, was to hold a creative lighting technique class for the Altoona-Blair County Photo Society at the Howard Avenue Armory. Mikula studied photography at Clarion State and Indiana universities.

35 years ago: March 26, 1990

A 21-year-old pilot from Texas made an emergency landing of his Cessna 172 in a field in rural Hollidaysburg when its engine failed. It landed next to property owned by Civil Air Patrol deputy commander William J. Bottenfield.

10 years ago: March 26, 2015

A Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Office of County Inspections and Services, inspection of the Blair County Prison, Michael M. Johnston warden, found “no concerns requiring a plan of action.”

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Wednesday, March 26, the 85th day of 2025. There are 280 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On March 26, 2024, Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being struck by a container ship, killing six maintenance workers on the bridge. (Maryland officials have announced plans to replace the bridge by late 2028.)

On this date:

– In 1812, an earthquake devastated Caracas, Venezuela, causing as many as 30,000 deaths. (The U.S. Congress later approved $50,000 in food aid to be sent to Venezuela — the first example of American disaster assistance abroad.)

– In 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American ice hockey team to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 9-1 to win the championship series, three games to one.

– In 1979, a peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and witnessed by President Jimmy Carter at the White House.

– In 1992, a judge in Indianapolis sentenced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson to six years in prison on rape charges. (Tyson would ultimately serve less than three years of the sentence.)

– In 1997, the bodies of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate religious cult who took their own lives were found inside a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

– In 2013, Italy’s top criminal court overturned the acquittal of American Amanda Knox in the grisly murder of British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered Knox to stand trial again. (Although convicted in absentia, Knox was exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court in 2015.)

– In 2018, a toxicology report obtained by The Associated Press revealed that the late pop superstar Prince had levels of fentanyl in his body that multiple experts described as “exceedingly high.”

– In 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, saying the cable news giant falsely claimed that the voting company rigged the 2020 election. (Fox would eventually agree to pay Dominion $787.5 million in one of the largest defamation settlements in U.S. history.)