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Local history
50 years ago: July 31, 1976
Merisela H. Escobar, 19, a Rotary exchange student from Mexico, was finishing her senior year at Altoona Area High School and staying at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Donald L. Carn.
25 years ago: July 31, 2001
The Tour de 'Toona bicycle races began in Altoona and race director Kirk Leidy said that 1,500 volunteers were needed, with the race still short of several hundred.
10 years ago: July 31, 2016
The Altoona Water Authority, Mike Bianconi crewman, repaired a water break in an 80-year-old pipe that flooded Logan Blvd., causing Sheetz to suspend food operations at its Frankstown Road, Pleasant Valley Boulevard and 17th Street Stores.
-- Compiled by Tim Doyle
World history
Today is Friday, July 31, the 212th day of 2026. There are 153 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On July 31, 2012, at the Summer Olympics in London, swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. (He would finish his career with 28 total Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.)
On this date:
– In 1945, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.
– In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
-- The Associated Press