Local news on this date: April 16

50 years ago: April 16, 1976

Cliff Thompson, Roaring Spring, a driver for Blue and White Bus Lines, was chosen by Universal Studios of California to have an acting and speaking part in the Paul Newman film “Slap Shot,” which was to be filmed in Johnstown, about ice hockey.

25 years ago: April 16, 2001

According to Census 2000, about half of Blair County’s 25 municipalities gained population and about half lost population, overall a loss of 1,398 for Blair, leaving a total of 129,144. Blair Planning Director Richard Haines said new housing development led to some population gain and small households led to some losses

10 years ago: April 16, 2016

Operation Our Town, Randy Feathers member, in cooperation with the Association of Law Officers, was raising money to repair an armored tactical truck which needed from $16,000 to fix or $250,000 to replace. It was formerly a Brinks Armored truck.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history on this date

Today is Friday, April 17, the 107th day of 2026. There are 258 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 17, 1961, some 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed bid to topple Fidel Castro.

Also on this date:

– In 1964, Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock completed the first solo around-the-world flight by a woman, landing her single-engine Cessna plane in Columbus, Ohio, after a 29-day journey.

– In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (Sirhan’s death sentence would be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He remains in prison today.)

– In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft and forced the crew to abort plans for a third moon landing.

– In 1975, Cambodia’s five-year civil war ended as the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, which instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives.

— The Associated Press