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In the news on this date: August 14

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Local history

50 years ago: Aug. 14, 1976

The Blair County Voter Registration program, Andrew Purcell director, said the mail in program was a great success with over 300 registrations received but that many of them were not properly filled out and the voters would have to be called.

25 years ago: Aug. 14, 2001

The Altoona Curve baseball team was giving Adam Hyzdu bobble head dolls to the first 2,000 fans tonight and had held bobble head doll nights for its mascot Steamer and manager Dale Sweum. The bobble head dolls had become a nationwide craze, according to a Mirror story by Michael Emery.

10 years ago: Aug. 14, 2016

Before his rally at the Blair County Convention Center, Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump toured the McLanahan Corp. in Hollidaysburg, a 181-year-old company. Altoona Mirror reporters were not allowed access to the McLanahan visit.

-- Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Friday, Aug. 14, the 226th day of 2026. There are 139 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, ensuring income for elderly Americans and creating a federal unemployment insurance program.

On this date:

– In 1936, in front of an estimated 20,000 spectators, Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public execution in the United States.

– In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which detailed the postwar goals of the two nations.

– In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

– In 1947, Pakistan gained independence from British rule.

-- The Associated Press

Starting at /week.