Local history

50 years ago: The Altoona Planning Commission re-elected Thomas J. Finnegan Jr. as chairman and then gave approval for Robert G. Pennington’s plan to build a development parallel to Ruskin Drive called Penn Terrace that was to include 45 townhouse units.

25 years ago: Antis Township approved a request from the Altoona-Blair County Redevelopment Corp., Patrick Miller deputy director, to designate a 51-acre site a Keystone Opportunity Zone so a business park could be built there.

10 years ago: The Blair County commissioners proclaimed Jan. 24-30 as School Choice Week and recognized director Mary Zajac of Penn Mont Academy, teacher Nancy Head of Great Commission School and director Donna Marie Leiden of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2026. There are 345 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president of the United States, succeeding Jimmy Carter.

On this date:

– In 1841, the island of Hong Kong was ceded by China to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.

– In 1936, Britain’s King George V died after his physician injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death. The king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

– In 1961, in his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy urged Americans, “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

– In 1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

– In 2009, Democrat Barack Obama was sworn in as the first Black president of the United States.

– In 2011, authorities orchestrated one of the biggest Mafia takedowns in FBI history, charging 127 suspected mobsters and associates in the Northeast with murders, extortion and other crimes spanning decades.