50 years ago: ARTS 75, sponsored by the Blair County Arts Foundation, Kenneth Kuhn and Roger Zellner coordinators, opened at the Penn State Altoona campus over four days featuring paintings, band music, the acting of plays, ballet dancing, dance and singing.

25 years ago: Boston Concessions, with an office at Blue Knob and headquartered in Massachusetts, filed an application for a liquor license for Lakemont Park. The Blair County Ballpark and The Casino at Lakemont Park already had liquor licenses.

10 years ago: The Baker Elementary School Parent Involvement Committee, Lisa Reilly school instructional coach, hosted a STREAM career day for the students, featuring local business professionals and teachers from Penn State Altoona and Saint Francis University.

Today is Thursday, May 8, the 128th day of 2025. There are 237 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 8, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced in a radio address that Nazi Germany’s forces had surrendered, stating that “the flags of freedom fly all over Europe” on V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

On this date:

– In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River, the first recorded European to do so.

– In 1846, U.S. forces led by Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican forces near modern-

day Brownsville, Texas, in the first major battle of the Mexican-American War.

– In 1886, the first serving of Coca-Cola, which contained cocaine, was sold at a pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

– In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement and the Oglala Lakota tribe, who had occupied the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks, surrendered to federal authorities.

– In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with the “Son of Sam” shootings that claimed six lives and terrified New Yorkers. (Berkowitz was sentenced to six consecutive life prison terms.)

– In 2020, U.S. unemployment surged to 14.7%, a level last seen when the country was in the throes of the Great Depression; the government reported that more than 20 million Americans had lost their jobs in April amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.