This photo shows the Altoona Senior High School Marching Band performing during the inauguration parade in Harrisburg in January 1967.

This photo shows the Altoona Senior High School Marching Band performing during the inauguration parade in Harrisburg in January 1967.

Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.

Local news on this date

March 28, 1951

Altoona Mayor J. Lester Laughlin proposed that Altoona, whose 0.007 income tax was two years old, collect the new Altoona School District 0.003 income tax for them. Charles M. Way was in charge of the tax collection office at City Hall.

March 28, 1976

A one-year-old company called Ireland Coffee-Tea of Altoona, James G. Wilt president, moved into offices in the Black and Yon Building downtown. They were a distribution firm.

March 28, 2001

MidPenn Legal Services Inc. of Harrisburg was to take over duties of Blair County Legal Services to represent the poor, a situation Blair Judge Thomas G. Peoples said he would closely monitor.

March 28, 2016

A StrongWomen/Growing Stronger program was to be held from April through June at the East Juniata Community Center in cooperation with the Central Blair Recreation and Park Commission. It involved both exercise and nutrition information.

March 29, 1951

The Altoona Chamber of Commerce tree committee, George P. Gable chairman, met at the Penn Alto Hotel and announced that several thousand oak and maple tree saplings had been ordered to be planted in Altoona to replace those damaged in the recent ice storm. City school children and city workers were to assist in planting.

Altoona Highway Superintendent George Sessler reported that 10 city trucks, each making nine trips a day, had been hauling broken limbs from the late November ice storm to the Canan Station water station to be burned and that they were still not finished. Broken trees and limbs on private property were not included.

March 29, 1976

Charmaine Kowalski, 19, of State College, a student at Penn State University, was chosen Miss Central Pennsylvania in competition at Hollidaysburg Area High School. Cindy Bishop of Newry was first runner-up.

The Arts ’76 competition in fine arts, crafts and print photography, Ken Kuhn chairman, was to be held May 7, 8 and 9 at the Penn State Altoona Campus. It was sponsored by the Blair County Arts Foundation. Entry information was available at the Mishler Theatre.

March 29, 2001

Amtran’s deal with Lamar Advertising to place 60 ad-bearing bus shelters along its route was running into legal complications due to Altoona Zoning issues and the Land Use Plan. The shelters were to be free to Altoona and Amtran.

The Kathleen Crilly School of Etiquette and Business Ethics Balance was holding “Lead from Within” in two sessions at the Penn State Altoona Downtown Conference Center. Dr. Peter Wolf and Kathleen Crilly were the instructors. The cost was $65 per person.

March 29, 2016

Altoona Area School District Superintendent John Kopicki was leaving for a superintendent’s job at Central Bucks School District after completing only one year of his five-year contract.

The Buccinese Society asked the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for an exemption from its outdoor noise rule for a number of outdoor concerts from May to October. Altoona had agreed to enforce its more liberal noise rule.

National, world news on this date

March 28

In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled 6-2 that Wong, who was born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants, was an American citizen. It was the first Supreme Court decision to rule on the citizenship status of a child born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents.

In 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred with a partial meltdown inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

March 29

In 1974, a group of Chinese farmers digging a well struck fragments of terra-cotta buried underground; archaeologists would ultimately discover terra-cotta sculptures of more than 8,000 soldiers and other figures. The “Terra-cotta Army” would become one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

In 1973, the last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.