Local history

50 years ago: June 16, 1976

Dolores Parisi, secretary-manager of the Blair County Motor Club, received the Governor’s Award for the club’s outstanding contributions to traffic safety from the state Department of Transportation in ceremonies in Harrisburg.

25 years ago: June 16, 2001

Hollidaysburg Borough Council received a $30,000 state grant to rehabilitate and stabilize a stream bank that ran through the Gaysport section of Hollidaysburg called the Minnie Ditch.

10 years ago: June 16, 2016

For the third year in a row, the Van Zandt VA Medical Center in Altoona was named one of top five hospitals in the U.S. for environmental excellence by Practice Greenhealth.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, June 16, the 167th day of 2026. There are 198 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 16, 1963, the world’s first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, 26, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6. Tereshkova spent 71 hours in flight, circling the Earth 48 times before returning.

Also on this date:

– In 1858, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln said the issue of slavery in the United States had to be resolved, declaring, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

– In 1884, designer La Marcus Thompson opened the first commercially successful roller coaster, known as the Switchback Railway, in Coney Island, New York.

– In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit, Michigan.

– In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall Act into law, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to bolster confidence in the U.S. banking system.

– In 1978, President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos signed the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties during a ceremony in Panama City.

— The Associated Press