Local history

50 years ago: March 25, 1975

Altoona purchased the two-story office building directly across the alley from City Hall to move the solicitor’s and planning offices into it. It was purchased from attorney Leo Mullen and valued at $8,500. The 71-year-old building once housed the Indian Salve Co.

35 years ago: March 25, 1990

A group of Altoona teachers called the Coalition of Altoona Professionals (CAP) was praised by the state for its work on the school district computer system, Ed Blair of the Altoona Area Education Association announced.

10 years ago: March 25, 2015

The 113-year-old Wolf Furniture Company, Doug Wolf CEO, announced the purchase of the five-store Baltimore, Md., based Gardiners Furniture Co., giving Wolf’s 17 locations.

— Compiled by Tim Doyle

World history

Today is Tuesday, March 25, the 84th day of 2025. There are 281 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On March 25, 1911, 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. garment factory in New York; the tragedy led to legal reforms for workers’ rights and workplace safety.

On this date:

– In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began a march from Massillon, Ohio, leading an “army” of as many as 500 unemployed workers to Washington to demand help from the federal government.

– In 1931, in the so-called Scottsboro Boys case, nine young Black men were taken off a train in Alabama and accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, they were eventually vindicated.

– In 1947, a coal dust explosion inside the Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 in Washington County, Illinois, killed 111 miners; 31 survived.

– In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 people to the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery, completing a five-day march from Selma to protest the denial of voting rights to Black Americans.

– In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was assassinated by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid. (Faisal bin Musaid was executed for the killing three months later.)

– In 1990, 87 people were killed when fire raced through the Happy Land social club in New York City. (The fire was set by Julio Gonzalez, who had been thrown out of the club following an argument with his girlfriend; Gonzalez died in prison in 2016.)

– In 1996, an 81-day standoff by the Montana Freemen, an antigovernment militia, began at a ranch near Jordan, Montana.

— The Associated Press