Local

July 16, 1989: Eunice Evenson of Albert Lea was featured in the Albert Lea Tribune following her recovery from a heart transplant procedure. Evenson was the first woman in the area to have a heart transplant.

July 18, 1979: Albert Lea Mayor O.H. Hagen declared it POW-MIA Recognition Day. The day, recognized nationally by Congress, honored Americans who were former prisoners of war and remembered those listed as missing in action.

July 20, 1979: More than 21,000 chickens perished in a fire in Pickerel Lake Township. Albert Lea Township Fire Chief Howard Nelson said that some 45-50 firemen helped to contain the blaze. A preliminary investigation by the state fire marshal indicated that the fire started in an electrical connection.

July 18, 1969: Albert Lea Cooperative Creamery, a Northside landmark, was reduced to rubble by a demolition crew. The building had been vacant since the creamery moved operations to Twin Lakes in 1967. Pure Oil Co. purchased the property.

July 17, 1939: The Evening Tribune received a telegram from Washington, D.C., announcing that the sum of $283,000 had been allotted for the construction of 301 miles of rural electrical lines in Freeborn, Mower and Dodge counties.

 

National

2018: A federal judge ruled that the Justice Department doesn’t have the authority to withhold grants to the city of Chicago because of its policies providing sanctuary to immigrants.

2008: Football player Michael Vick, suspended for bankrolling a dogfighting operation, was reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

1996: Terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111.

1976: Air Force veteran Ray Brennan became the first person to die of so-called “Legionnaire’s disease” following an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.

1974: The House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

1953: The Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.

1866: Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe. A previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks’ use.

1861: Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

1794: French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.