Local news on this date:

July 5, 1950

A weeklong cooking clinic was being held at the Montgomery-Ward Store in downtown Altoona conducted by Mr. T. Sustek, who was also to give lessons in canning.

July 5, 1975

The Little Red Schoolhouse on a boat owned by Mr. and Mrs. Don Witters of Altoona won first place in the Lake Glendale Pontoon Association Regatta. The Raymond Stoy family of Altoona played teacher, students and dunce on the boat.

July 5, 2000

The 20 kids visiting Altoona from sister-city St. Polten, Austria, sang their national anthem at an Altoona Curve game ,and St. Polten Mayor Willi Gruber threw out the first pitch. The Curve lost to Reading 9-5.

July 5, 2015

David A. Barger, 64, Altoona, died July 3. He was the owner of local radio stations WRTA, WKMC, WBXQ and WBRX, had a master’s degree in business from Penn State and had been involved in many other businesses.

July 6, 1950

The annual Altoona YWCA garden party on the grounds of the Baker Mansion was to feature minuet dancing by the Y Teens Club, the Peggy Greer Dancing School and a chorus under the direction of Magdalene Bair. About 50 Blair County women were to act as hostesses.

The 33-member Altoona Kiwanis Choir, Howard W. Lindaman director, was to present a special religious program over radio station WJSW which would go out as a national radio program. Clemence Nagle and Mrs. George Hobson were accompanists.

July 6, 1975

The Sizzlers Restaurant, with locations in Greenwood and Tyrone, advertised a two-piece chicken dinner with french fries and bread roll for $1.09 while the A&P on Chestnut Ave. advertised a visit from Santa Claus and Miss Pennsylvania Connie Harness.

At Fort Roberdeau in Sinking Valley, the Tuckahoe Valley Militia raised a 13-star Revolutionary War Flag made by the Altoona Women’s Club and dedicated to the local Marine Corps League.

July 6, 2000

Altoona hired its first planning director in three years, Dave McFarland, to restart the Logantown Revitalization Strategy Area Plan. Its 3,363 residents between Altoona Hospital and Juniata had a poverty rate of 35 percent.

Police from five local departments, State Police, the FBI and a search dog were searching for a man who robbed the Altoona/Hollidaysburg branch of the First American National Bank on Plank Road and fled on foot. No injuries were reported.

July 6, 2015

Window World installed 25 new energy-efficient windows on the Altoona Community Theater, the former 103-year-old former Elks Building on the 1200 block of 12th Street in downtown Altoona, part of a three-year, $75,000 restoration.

John and Sherry Forney, owners of Forney Financial Services in Altoona, purchased a farm in Warriors Mark to raise alpacas, which were native to South America and they had about 40, some from a farm they owned in South Carolina. Rescue horses were also located on the property.

National, world news on this date

July 5

In 1687, Isaac Newton first published his Principia Mathematica, a three-volume work setting out his mathematical principles of natural philosophy.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.

In 1937, Hormel introduced a canned meat product called Spam; more than 9 billion cans have been sold since.

In 1940, during World War II, Britain and the Vichy government in France broke off diplomatic relations.

In 1946, the modern bikini, designed by Frenchman Louis Reard, was first modeled in Paris.

In 1954, Elvis Presley recorded his first single, “That’s All Right,” at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon certified the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowered the minimum voting age from 21 to 18.

In 1994, Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos as an online marketplace for books.

July 6

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.

In 2013, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing three passengers and injuring 181.

Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.

Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.