50 years ago in Expo history: The city’s iconic clock tower was dedicated as a historic site

Expo ’74’s Great Northern Clock Tower was dedicated as a state historical site, with Gov. Daniel Evans presenting a plaque that was to be mounted on the tower.

State Parks and Recreation Commissioner Thomas C. Garrett noted that the clock face – at 155 feet up – had witnessed many of the significant events in Spokane’s history since 1902.

He also noted that, at the time, it was considered the “most magnificent and largest timepiece of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.”

In other Expo news, attendance hit 5,022,521. That was an average of more than 28,000 per day.

From 100 years ago: A jury found C.E. Benedict, proprietor of the U.R.M. Grocery Store, guilty of selling a pound of coffee on a Sunday.

A state law prohibited Sunday sales of “groceries or uncooked meats.”

Benedict’s lawyer argued that his client was the victim of “stool pigeons” employed by a competing grocery store, who served as prosecution witnesses. The lawyer claimed that the true motive behind the case was commercial rivalry.

The jury, however, took only 20 minutes to deliver a guilty verdict.

Benedict was fined only $1 and costs.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1871: The Philadelphia Athletics beat Chicago for the first National Association baseball pennant.

1973: The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia for the first time.