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Local history
50 years ago: 1975
More than 200 Cub Scouts from the Tuckahoe District held a "Fun in the Fall" competition at the Frankstown Armory. Cub Scouts from first place winner Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Pack 49, Tom Hite and Kevin Longenecker, won top honors.
25 years ago: 2000
Altoona Area High School signed an agreement with Pepsi Cola that raised enough money to purchase the $33,000 message board on 17th Street and also the scoreboard at the Mansion Park Baseball Field. The school also received about $16,000 a year from the soda machines.
10 years ago: 2015
The Altoona Area School Board, Maryann Joyce Bistline president, interviewed three architectural firms about conducting a study for the future of the district's schools.
World history
Today is Monday, Oct. 20, the 293rd day of 2024. There are 72 days left in the year.
Today's highlight in history:
On Oct. 20, 1944, Gen. Douglas MacArthur waded ashore in his return to the Philippines against Japanese forces in World War II, fulfilling a promise he made ("I shall return") after being ordered to evacuate the country in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On this date:
– In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
– In 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.