50 years ago in Expo history: Officials preparing for Expo ‘75 impressed by Spokane’s fair

A delegation of Japanese visitors had a particularly significant reason for touring Expo ’74: They were preparing to launch Expo ’75 on the island of Okinawa.

One member of the delegation said Spokane’s Expo was “the best example for Expo ’75.”

That fair, too, would have an environmental theme, focusing on ocean conservation. The Expo ’75 theme would be, “The Sea We Would Like to See.”

In other Expo news, country-western star Marty Robbins played to a crowd of 2,850 at the Coliseum. A Spokesman-Review critic said he “created an infectious party mood.” He told the crowd his voice was not as strong as usual, because of injuries in a recent racing-car accident. Yet the critic said “he needn’t have worried.”

He performed fine renditions of his best-known hits, including “El Paso,” “White Sportcoat” and “My Woman, My Wife.”

From 100 years ago: The famous Davenport Hotel had a little-known minihotel on its roof: a doggie hotel.

The dog “cottages” were “small affairs painted brown with green-shingled roofs and overhanging eaves.”

During the busy tourist season, the canine hotel might have 10 or 12 boarders a day. Some of the smaller dogs stayed with their owners in their rooms, but the larger ones “are ushered in majesty to the roof, where they can bay the moon at leisure and stretch their legs.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1781: British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender at Yorktown, effectively ending the American Revolutionary War.