50 years ago in Expo history: Canada mounts a spectacle for Expo ‘74 as Garbage Goat gets a friend

About 25 Mounties in brilliant scarlet tunics staged a “Musical Ride” through downtown Spokane to the Expo ’74 grounds.

A contingent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was joined by the City of Winnipeg’s Massed Pipes and Drums and the Princess Patricia Light Infantry Band from Calgary.

It was just a taste of what was on tap for a Canada-themed week at the fair. The Mounties and the other performers were preparing for a weeklong performance of “Spectacle Canadien” at the Coliseum.

In other Expo news, the Garbage Goat acquired a grazing companion on the fairgrounds. A metal sculpture of a bighorn sheep appeared “without fanfare” on the slopes of the river underneath the Howard Street bridge. The sculpture, by well-known Spokane artist Ken Spiering, was arranged by the Spokane Art School.

From 100 years ago: Louie Luke, charged with hurling his wife Agnes Luke from a third story window at the Model Hotel, pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

His attorney said that Luke was “suffering from mental irresponsibility” at the time of the crime.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1883: Krakatoa volcano, west of Java in Indonesia, erupts with the force of 200 megatons of TNT and kills approximately 40,000 people.

1942: Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko arrives in Washington D.C., becomign the first Soviet citizen welcomed at the White House by Eleanor Roosevelt.

1964: Walt Disney’s musical film “Mary Poppins” wins five Acadamy Awards.