Local history

50 years ago: 1976

The Altoona Family YMCA received a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Col. John R. Beyer, USAF Reserve, conducted physical aptitude examinations at the Y six times a year.

25 years ago: 2001

More than 200 Altoona school students participated in the national Groundhog Job Shadow Day, spending the day at various area businesses.

10 years ago: 2016

Leland Melvin, who left a career in the National Football League to serve as one of the first African American astronauts, serving on two shuttle missions, spoke at Penn State Altoona.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2026. There are 331 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On Feb. 3, 1959, which would become known as “the day the music died,” rock ‘n roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

On this date:

– In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting Black American men the right to vote, was ratified.

– In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

– In 1917, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, the same day an American cargo ship, the SS Housatonic, was sunk by a U-boat off Britain (after the crew was allowed to board lifeboats).

– In 1943, during World War II, the U.S. transport ship SS Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a German torpedo in the Labrador Sea; only some 230 of the 900 aboard survived.

– In 1998, a U.S. Marine jet sliced through the cable of a ski gondola near Cavalese, Italy, causing the car to plunge hundreds of feet, killing all 20 people inside.

– In 2023, more than three dozen freight cars of a train carrying hazardous materials derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, close to the Pennsylvania line. The derailment prompted an immediate evacuation and the intentional burning of toxic vinyl chloride three days later that sent flames and acrid smoke in the air.

— The Associated Press