Local history

50 years ago: Yeoman 1st Class Marcia Jeanne Crider of Altoona retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve in Altoona with the “over the side” piping ceremony. She had enlisted in 1933 and saw service overseas.

25 years ago: Altoona Hospital and the Blair County Physicians-Hospital Organization terminated their contract with Geisinger Health Plan, which covered about 10,000 of their patients, saying proposed contract changes would cause them to lose money.

10 years ago: Cresson Borough learned that the state was closing the Cresson Secure Treatment Unit for juveniles, saying it was underutilized, causing the loss of about 70 jobs. This was on top of the closing of the state prison there, causing the loss of 500 more jobs.

World history

Today is Monday, Aug. 18, the 230th day of 2025. There are 135 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.

On this date:

– In 1590, John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony (in present-day North Carolina), returned to Roanoke after nearly three years abroad only to find the settlement deserted; the fate of the “Lost Colony” remains a mystery.

– In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.

– In 1958 , Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita was published in the United States.

– In 1963, James Meredith became the first Black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

– In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, wound to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.

– In 1983, Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage.

– In 2004, in Athens, Paul Hamm won the men’s gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered that a scoring error cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.

– In 2005, a judge in Wichita, Kansas, sentenced BTK serial killer Dennis Rader to 10 consecutive life terms, the maximum the law would allow.

– In 2014, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis convulsed by protests over the fatal shooting of a Black 18-year-old, Michael Brown.