50 years ago in Expo history: Arkansas, New Jersey, Missouri, New Hampshire, Moscow? Governors and a Soviet tourism official had their day at the fair

Plenty of dignitaries were on hand at Expo ’74, including four governors and a Russian delegation.

The governors were Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, Brendan Byrne of New Jersey, Christopher Bond of Missouri and Meldrim Thompson of New Hampshire.

Two other governors had visited the day before: Philip Noel of Rhode Island and Bruce King of New Mexico.

The U.S.S.R. delegation included Alena Porkhatcheva, a Moscow official with Soviet tour company Intourist, who urged Americans to visit Russia. She said the average cost of accommodation in Moscow was $27 a day – and that included breakfast. She also said it was easy to get a visa.

From 100 years ago: Raymond Brown, 14, an orphan at the Hutton Settlement, died when he and two other boys attempted to dig a cave in a nearby sand bank.

Another boy, Roy Van Cleave, 12, was able to wriggle out before the sand covered him. He and another boy ran a quarter-mile to the orphanage to get help, but when rescuers arrived, it was too late. It took them 15 minutes to dig the boy’s body out of the sand.

The Hutton superintendent said that “everyone here is grief-stricken.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1862: Robert E. Lee takes command of Confederate armies of North Virginia during the American Civil War.

1896: Italian engineer and inventor Guglielmo Marconi applies for the first ever patent for a system of wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom