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This is a photo of the new 1941 Mack fire engine of the Altoona Pennsylvania Railroad Fire Department sitting on the Eighth Street Bridge at the entrance to Rose Yard in Juniata. This engine was given new tires in 1985 and donated to the Altoona Fire Department, which displays it today at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. The photo was submitted from the collection of Leonard Alwine of Altoona.
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.
Local news on this date
Oct. 18, 1950
The retail division of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce, W. Stanley Truby chairman, declared Altoona Day for downtown store sales as part of the official Pennsylvania Week. Many thousands of shoppers were expected.
Oct. 18, 1975
The final concrete was poured to complete a 250-foot-high chimney at the Pennsylvania Electric Co. Williamsburg Generating Station at a cost of $314,000, after which an American flag-raising ceremony was held with plant superintendent William R. Lightner presiding.
Oct. 18, 2000
Altoona Hospital, Robert Barnes medical director of quality affairs, was taking part in a nationwide study of 100 hospitals on medical errors and hospital mistakes by a group called the Voluntary Hospitals of America.
Oct. 18, 2015
The Altoona Redevelopment Authority received a purchase request from CapForte LLC of Florida to purchase 37 city properties to build Section 8 subsidized modular homes on. They said they hoped to purchase 50 to 60 lots.
Oct. 19, 1950
The 6-20 Club, an organization of young Catholic men and women between the ages of 18 to 35 was held at Sacred Heart Assembly Hall and Albert Benfatta was elected president, who said he hoped to raise membership to at least 250 this year.
A special train was due in Altoona tomorrow for the close of Pennsylvania Week. George C. Kelchner Jr. was Blair County chairman. On the train was PA Secretary of Commerce Theodore Roosevelt III, movie star Alexis Smith, radio personality Ezra Stone and Miss Pennsylvania Emilie Longacre.
Oct. 19, 1975
Altoona Enterprises was taking bids to construct a 115-acre industrial park in Claysburg with water and sewer service, access roads and railroad access with an estimated cost of $1.5 million. It was to be named in honor of W. William Ward.
The United Methodist Union of Altoona, the Rev. Russell Hart union president, was holding a New World Mission service at the Jaffa Mosque with 2,200 parishioners from 20 local churches attending. A choir of 250, the Rev. H. Richard Welliver liturgist, sang for the meeting.
Oct. 19, 2000
Amtran, Eric Wolfe general manager, was trying to sell three small Orion II buses it had because they kept breaking down. It became complicated when the Federal Transportation Authority told them their lifespan was seven years rather than the 12 years when the authority purchased them.
After three years of effort, Logan Elementary School was opening its new outdoor education amphitheater and pavilion, which cost $10,000. The money was raised by volunteer efforts. Principal Jeanne Hair and teachers Susan Holzer, Chuck English and William Churchill were instrumental in the effort.
Oct. 19, 2015
The Central PA Pet Expo, Amy Hanna-Eckenrode director and Altoona Mirror development and circulation sales manager, was held at the Blair County Convention Center with 3,500 people attending. Besides dogs, animals like a camel, wallaby and lemurs were displayed.
Autumn Mallonee, 13, and her sister, Paige DeGennaro, 6, of Altoona, purchased lunch, Subway sandwiches, for the entire Altoona Police force using money they had saved for a trip to Disney World.
National, world news on this date
Oct. 18:
In 1867, the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
In 1898, the American flag was first raised in Puerto Rico, shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the U.S.
In 1931, inventor Thomas Edison died at his home in West Orange, New Jersey, at the age of 84.
In 1954, Texas Instruments unveiled the Regency TR-1, the first commercially produced transistor radio.
In 1962, James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
In 1968, American Bob Beamon shattered the previous long jump world record by nearly two feet, leaping 29 feet, 2 1/4 inches (8.90 meters) at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
Oct. 19:
In 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a segregated lunch counter in Atlanta, one of the early events of the non-violent protest movement that King was instrumental in leading during the nascent civil rights era.
In 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6% in value (its largest daily percentage loss ever), to close at 1,738.74 on what came to be known as "Black Monday."
In 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa during a ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Mother Teresa, who founded the Missionaries of Charity global order that attends to society's outcasts, was elevated to sainthood in 2016 by Pope Francis. She died in 1997.
Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.