50 years ago in Expo history: Oregon committed to the fair, cementing Spokane’s bloc of neighboring states to sign up
The Expo ’74 promotional hot air balloon made a test flight – or test float? – from the Expo grounds.
It drifted north with a four-person crew and landed near Whitworth College. It was soon to embark on a 20-city promotional tour.
In other Expo news, Oregon announced that it would, as anticipated, have a pavilion at Expo ’74. That meant that “all of Washington’s neighboring states and provinces will be represented.”
A Spokane Chronicle editorial said that an Oregon exhibit was especially fitting, because “more than any Western state except Colorado, Oregon has emphasized the importance of preserving and enhancing the environment.”
From 100 years ago: The Chronicle ran a front-page feature on “Miss Opal S. Martin, advertising manager for Blakely’s department store and the only woman in the city holding a similar position.”
Writing compelling advertising copy, managing a publicity budget and “cooking two meals each day and helping to care for a five-room apartment is all in a day’s work” for the young woman.
The Chronicle called this Montana transplant “a picture of healthy young womanhood” with a “merry laugh that bubbles continually just below the surface.” Yet she “can be stern when occasion demands and she has learned to hold her own in all business dealings.”
Also on this day
(From onthisday.com)
1968: Civil rights activist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.