Local history

50 years ago: May 12, 1976

The Altoona Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, Mountain City Lodge, paid tribute to its 73 deceased members, three of which died in the line of duty in auto accidents, on National Police Week, proclaimed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

25 years ago: May 12, 2001

Bishop Guilfoyle High School art students worked with fifth graders from area parochial schools that week on a program called Celebrating the Arts, the seventh year for the program, which included a bake sale, an artist assembly and musical.

10 years ago: May 12, 2016

Disabled Navy veteran Jeffrey Campbell was to receive a new home in Duncansville through a program called the Helping Hero Program. The famous country singing group the Oak Ridge Boys, in Altoona for a concert, attended the groundbreaking ceremony.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2026. There are 233 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 12, 2008, a devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.

Also on this date:

– In 1780, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces in one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War.

– In 1846, the pioneers of the Donner Party left Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail, beginning their ill-fated attempt to migrate to California.

– In 1932, the body of Charles Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was found in a wooded area near Hopewell, New Jersey.

– In 1933, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration established both the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided federal funding to states for relief programs, and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which provided economic support to farmers.

– In 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.

– The Associated Press