Local history

50 years ago: July 7, 1976

A railroad caboose called “Mae West,” on display at the Horseshoe Curve for the past 15 years, was destroyed by fire. The caboose was built in the Altoona PRR shops in 1916 and donated to the Curve by the Blair County Tourist Bureau.

25 years ago: July 7, 2001

Mike Little, director of the Central Blair Recreation Commission, said that the installation of the $117,000, 21-foot water slide at Memorial Pool in Juniata had doubled attendance, with more than 600 people attending in one day.

10 years ago: July 7, 2016

Multiple law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with PennDOT, Cambria County Safety and Buckle Up PA, teamed up on a program called “Summer Drive Time” to crack down on speeding, aggressive driving, texting and DUI driving.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, July 7, the 188th day of 2026. There are 177 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history:

On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

On this date:

In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government.

In 1898, President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, approving the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii.

In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (known today as Hoover Dam).

In 1976, the United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980.

In 1990, the first “Three Tenors” concert took place as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome’s Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final.

— The Associated Press