History page notes they "failed" to load

Several days ago there was a large number of updates available to download. I allowed the system to update all of them. Three, KB974234, KB972581 and KB973709 it was shown on the update history page as failing to download.
Reading as to a possible solution, I tried to load them manually, saving those files to my desktop, right clicking on each, to run as an administrator. After each loaded I got a message telling me they were already installed on my system.
My question is why does the "failure" notice remain on my history page and how can I delete those three file entries?
Thanks much,
Lee

Simplest way to reset WU history is stop for the moment Windows Update service and remove C:\Windows\SoftwareDistibution folder...

Thanks for the suggestion.
I tried to both remove the file as you suggested by deleting it and also tried to rename it.
In both cases the action was stopped, telling me I needed permission to continue, when I gave that permission, I was told access was denied because the file was in use by another program.
I accessed the file (C:\windows\softwaredistribution) from the "start search" line by opening the start icon.
Lee

Try reset WU components in aggressive mode How do I reset Windows Update components?
(apart many things which this tool do,it delete SoftwareDistribution as well)

If it also fail check permissions fort his folder http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/157304-folder-permissions.html

You can also try delete this folder in safe mode

Flavius,
I thank you very much.
Ran your suggestion in the default mode, that failed to clear the history, but the aggressive mode did the trick.
Lee