50 years ago in the history of the Expo: the symphony received a sales boost from the fair

The beneficial effects of Expo ’74 apparently extended to Spokane’s cultural institutions, especially the Spokane Symphony.

The symphony had just recorded a hugely successful subscription campaign, “exceeding the 5,000 mark for the first time in the orchestra’s 29-year history, and is on the verge of a sold-out ticket.”

The Spokesman-Review said this was a tribute to the orchestra itself, but also to “the increased cultural awareness” that Expo brought about.

From 100 years ago: Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans, the “Imperial Wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan, came to Spokane and addressed “nearly a thousand” local Klansmen at the Masonic Temple.

Here are some excerpts from his speech:

On the recent national elections: “They told us we were going to be killed on Tuesday. You know, I’m still a little drunk from that landslide.’

On immigration: “We have decided to stop the dilution of Americanism, and if you want to stop the dilution of anything, you just put a cork in the bottle so nothing more can get in.”

On a new immigration law: “There was nothing left to discuss – the wall has been built!”

On immigrants already in the US: “But the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are going to propose that when foreign nations send their criminals here, and we catch them, we send them back where they came from!”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1960: U.S. Marshalls escort four six-year-old black girls to previously all-white public schools in New Orleans in response to death threats against the girls and race riots.