Dean McKnight of Altoona submitted this photo of the 1957 mechanical drafting graduating class at Altoona Vocational-Technical School. Shown are (from left): front — Ray Goodman, Bob Reffner, Gordon Anthony, Vince Markel, Dick Martin and Dean McKnight; back — Clair Green, Paul Smith, Lee Kerns and Harry Daugherty.

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

Jan. 17, 1951

A committee meeting of the Altoona Foundation, John H. Dillen chairman, was held at the First National Bank. The foundation was a trust fund for the civic betterment of the city established by the late Benjamin Cohn and had been added to in the wills and bequests of numerous other city residents.

Jan. 17, 1976

All five students in Penn State Altoona’s first year of Aerospace Studies in the College of Engineering, a two-year associate degree, were offered jobs in the aerospace industry upon graduation without having to interview.

Jan. 17, 2001

Bill Shuster, son of Congressman Bud Shuster, R-9th District, announced his candidacy for the congressional seat to be vacated by his father Jan. 31. He previously owned a car dealership called Shuster Chrysler.

Jan. 17, 2016

The Altoona Mirror polled five local school superintendents on state unfunded mandates and one said that teacher evaluations had cost his school $150,000 in one year and that tests like the PSSA and Keystone Exam cost school districts millions statewide.

Jan. 18, 1951

The Blair County Civil Defense Committee, Col. W.A. Morgan deputy coordinator, met at Altoona City Hall to discuss the city air raid system and when and how the alarms should be sounded. Retired city electrician Charles S. Downs was placed in charge of the air raid system and signals.

The Altoona Art League, sponsored by the Park and Recreation Board, was meeting once a week in the Webster Building downtown and artist Kenneth Krise was holding sketching classes and the building of a portrait using water colors, pastels or oils. The entire group was working on a mural called “Art Through the Ages.”

Jan. 18, 1976

Wissingers Supermarket on 31st Street was adding a building along its Walnut Avenue side to contain a barber shop, laundromat, drug store and Western Auto Store. Also, an addition was being added to the main supermarket building.

The Blair County Bicentennial Commission held its first event, an All-Faiths Religious Celebration at the Jaffa Mosque, with Rabbi Nathan Kaber, the Rev. William S. Shirley and Bishop James J. Hogan offering prayers. Judge Genevieve Blatt was the guest speaker.

Jan. 18, 2001

Altoona Hospital, Rick Reeves spokesman, announced the closing of its Congestive Heart Failure Clinic that had 125 patients, blaming the closure on HMO (Health Maintenance Organizations) plans not reimbursing them for costs.

Blair County Sheriff Larry Field, 63, who had been sheriff for 10 years, announced his candidacy for another four-year term. He said his department made 409 arrests last year and had 22 full- and part-time deputies who made arrests, served court papers, transported inmates, processed gun permits and guarded judges and courtrooms.

Jan. 18, 2016

The former Cathedral school and St. Joseph’s convent building on 13th Avenue, across the street from the Cathedral Church, were being razed by Earthmovers Unlimited. The former Kopp’s Drugstore building across the street had been purchased by the parish and was being renovated for church use.

Blair County Controller A.C. Stickel hired RBA Professional Data Systems of State College to try to determine what files were deleted from a computer in the office. Former controller Rich Peo said that the only data deleted were his personal worksheets, which he thought no one would want.

National, world news on this date

Jan. 17:

In 1920, prohibition of alcohol began in the United States as the Volstead Act went into effect in support of the 18th Amendment.

In 1950, the Great Brink’s Robbery took place as seven masked men held up the Brink’s Building in Boston, stealing $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks and money orders.

In 1990, The Four Seasons, The Four Tops, The Kinks, The Platters, Simon and Garfunkel and The Who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Kobe, Japan.

Jan. 18:

In 1996, Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson, citing “irreconcilable differences” after less than two years of marriage.

In 2013, former Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he’d used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the devastated city was struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. (Nagin was later convicted, served time, and was released from prison in 2020.)

In 2019, Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer who gunned down Black teenager Laquan McDonald in 2014, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison.

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