50 years ago in Expo history: A new train route was named in honor of the big fair

Good news arrived on the transportation front: Amtrak announced that it would add an extra daily train between Seattle and Spokane, named the “Expo ’74.”

The Expo ’74 train would join the existing passenger routes – the Empire Builder and the North Coast Hiawatha – bringing the number of Amtrak trains serving Spokane from 20 per week to 35.

The Expo ’74 train was scheduled to run from May 19 through September 14, estimated to be the fair’s peak season.

Amtrak officials predicted many of these passenger trains would sell out during the summer, partly because of the continuing gasoline shortage.

From 100 years ago: Did the Hillyard annexation vote pass or not? Who knew?

“In the railroad town today, disgust, happiness, regret, suspicion and determination rule,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote.

The unofficial vote count said it did not pass, with 601 against and 595 in favor.

Yet accusations were flying that ballots had been thrown out illegally. A final tally was to be released within a day, but annexation proponents were already demanding a recount.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1894: Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1974: Ted Bundy victim Donna Manson disappears from Evergreen State College in Olympia. Her body is never found.