Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 50 years ago

Spokane was filled with high school kids and their families attending the State B basketball tournament.

A group of students from Kittitas said they considered it a big adventure into the “big city.”

“The first thing we did when we got here was to try and find a beatnik place we heard about,” said one Kittitas student. “… But it was all closed up.”

From the music beat: The Spokane Philharmonic Orchestra crisis came to a head when 19 board members resigned, along with the board president, Donald P. Lindsay.

Conductor Harold Paul Whelan attempted to submit his resignation to the orchestra’s board, but it wasn’t acted upon because 19 members resigned first, effectively dissolving the board.

The orchestra’s fifth and final concert of the season was also canceled.

This left the orchestra with a board half its normal size, no president, a conductor who wanted to resign and no season.

The underlying problem was that, in Lindsay’s words, “the Philharmonic is broke.”

Its future was clearly in doubt, yet it had already sold a record number of subscriptions for next season.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1785: Thomas Jefferson was appointed America’s minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.