50 years ago in Expo history: An unexpected boon for the fair’s tiny post office? Hobbyists who wanted to send scores of its specially stamped letters

Expo ’74’s small Post Office had already taken in an impressive $89,527 – largely because of philatelists.

That is, stamp collectors.

The Expo station clerks “hand-canceled all mail with a stamp that said, ‘World’s Fair, Expo ’74 Station, Spokane, WA.’ ”

The collectors were not only fair visitors. The collectors also included “a large number of persons all over this country and abroad who mailed in large envelopes full of already stamped letters so the Expo Station postal clerks could mail them from here with the Expo cancellation on them.”

In other Expo news, Expo management and concessionaires agreed to a settlement of their various lawsuits. Management alleged that some concessionaires had engaged in “skimming,” and the concessionaires countered by claiming breach of contract.

The details of the agreement were undisclosed.

From 100 years ago: The City of Spokane was forced to slash its 1925 budget estimate by $75,000.

This would necessitate the elimination of several improvement plans for various city parks and cuts to the road construction fund. Fire department salaries and wages were also slashed.

The reasons for the shortfall were not specified, but one factor may have been higher expenditures due to the Hillyard annexation.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1000: Leif Ericson reaches “Vinland” (possibly L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada) reputedly becoming first European to reach North America.

1941: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program that would become the Manhattan Project.