This day in history: Unemployment was so bad that the Spokane benefits office was expanding its hours

From 1975: Unemployment was reaching crisis proportions in the U.S, and Spokane was not spared.

A photo in The Spokesman-Review showed long lines at the state Employment Security Office at Boone and Howard.

About 2,200 people in Spokane County were eligible for extended benefits for people who had already exhausted their claims, and for those whose jobs were not previously covered.

Office hours at the employment security office were extended for the next two weeks to handle the crush.

From 1925: Fred Kohrdt, 17, from Spokane, died in a gun battle with police officers in Leavenworth, Washington.

The boy was alleged to have stolen a car in nearby Cashmere. When officers attempted to arrest him at a Leavenworth hotel, “the youth leaped out of a window and ran down the alley.”

The officers chased him into the woods after exchanging gunfire with Kohrdt, and that’s where they fatally shot him.

His father admitted that Kohrdt had been in similar kinds of trouble before.

“I know in my own mind that Fred was not a bad boy,” his grieving father said. “It was a craving for excitement that caused it all.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1929: “Tarzan,” one of the first adventure comic strips, is published.

1949: The first photograph of genes is taken at University of Southern California by Pease & Baker.

1959: The United States formally recognizes Fidel Castro’s Cuban government.