Glancing Backward

Today is Monday, Oct. 26, the 299th day of 2009. There are 66 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 26, 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death during a dinner party along with his chief bodyguard by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu, who was later executed.

Glancing Backward Locally:

25 years ago - 1984

Towanda's Judy Perry took the District IV Class AA girls cross country championship with a time of 19:04.

Selected as the Fraternal Order of Eagles Auxiliary District 10 Mother was Flossie Lines, a member of the Towanda Eagles Auxiliary No. 1367.

A new executive director of the Bradford/Sullivan Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross was named: Joyce Hinkson of North Towanda.

50 years ago - 1959

SS Peter and Paul parish will honor Rev. Peter J. Alisauskas at a farewell party before he leaves for his new appointment at St. Joseph's Church in Scranton.

Mrs. Mary Wood Conklin, a Columbia Cross Roads resident, has been elected recording secretary of Kappa Delta Pi at Mansfield State Teachers College.

In the senior homemaking class at Towanda Valley High School, the girls are studying meat cooking, and are also enrolling in the Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow.

75 years ago - 1934

The 100-piece Wellsboro boys' band, directed by Lawrence Woodin and said to be the largest children's band in the country, will perform at the Towanda Halloween parade.

Celebrating his birthday today is Herbert Boyle, son of Mr. and Mrs. G.H. Boyle, and proprietor of The Variety Store in Towanda.

There are 17 members of this years Canton High School home economics class, which was organized under the name of "Taste and Baste."

Elsewhere on this date:

In 1881, the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" took place in Tombstone, Ariz., as Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday confronted Ike Clanton's gang. Three members of Clanton's group were killed; Earp's brothers and Holliday were wounded.

In 1942, Japanese planes badly damaged the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during World War II. (The Hornet sank early the next morning.)

In 1972, national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared that "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.

In 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty during a ceremony at the Israeli-Jordanian border attended by President Bill Clinton.

Ten years ago: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study which said the number of Americans considered obese had soared from about one in eight in 1991 to nearly one in five in 1998. The New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5, to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series.

Five years ago: The FCC gave its approval to Cingular Wireless LLC's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Israel's parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The final vote count in the Afghan presidential election gave a resounding victory to interim leader Hamid Karzai.

One year ago: U.S. military helicopters launched a rare attack on Syrian territory, killing eight people in a strike Damascus condemned as "serious aggression." Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels, died in Albuquerque, N.M., at age 83.

Today's Birthdays: Former Sen. Edward Brooke III is 90. Actress Shelley Morrison is 73. Actor Bob Hoskins is 67. Author Pat Conroy is 64. Actress Jaclyn Smith is 64. TV host Pat Sajak is 63. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is 62. Singer Maggie Roche (The Roches) is 58. Musician Bootsy Collins is 58. Actor James Pickens Jr. ("Grey's Anatomy") is 57. Rock musician Keith Strickland (The B-52's) is 56.