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Charles Apple

Charles Apple

Current Position: designer editor

Charles Apple joined The Spokesman-Review in 2019 as a design editor. He designs weekly Further Review pages that cover subjects such as the history of comics, William Shatner, Tiger Woods, autism spectrum disorder and even how to get your Spokesman-Review aboard the International Space Station. Apple has worked for papers across the nation, large and small. He is considered an informational graphics guru, winning countless international awards and his work consulting and training newsrooms around the world.

Email
charlesa@spokesman.com

Recent Front Pages

All Stories

A&E >  Music

The sometimes questionable art of album covers

Growing up in the 1970s, I became fascinated with what appeared to be a wonderfully creative field: rock and roll album cover design. Some album covers featured photos of the artist. Some used abstract art. Some were amusing. Some were deadly serious.
News >  Further Review

History of Apartheid in South Africa

In America, it was called Jim Crow. In South Africa, the term was apartheid: strict racial segregation enforced by law that began in the late 1940s and early 1950s and didn’t end until, under tremendous pressure from the international community, South African leaders decided apartheid had to go. That happened on June 17, 1991: Thirty years ago today.
News >  Further Review

The career of golfer Phil Mickelson

Last month, Phil Mickelson stunned the golf world by winning the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, South Carolina – the oldest golfer to win a major tournament. Today, Mickelson turns 51.
News >  Further Review

The most powerful volcanic eruptions

Thirty years ago today, Mount Pinatubo – a peaceful unassuming mountain 50 miles northwest of Manila in the Philippines, erupted in what would be the second-largest volcanic event of the 20th century.
News >  Further Review

History of computing

Seventy years ago today, the first electronic computer built specifically for commercial purposes was put to use by the customer that bought it: the U.S. Census Bureau.
News >  Further Review

The Pentagon papers: the true extent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam

Fifty years ago Sunday, the New York Times began publishing a series of reports culled from a top-secret analysis compiled for the Pentagon regarding the true extent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and in the Vietnam War. The report embarrassed a number of career politicians and leaders. At one point, the series would be shut down for 15 days by a court order.
A&E >  Music

U2 makes its U.S. TV debut

On this date 40 years ago, the Irish band U2 made its national TV debut in the U.S. on Tom Snyder’s late-night talk show, “Tomorrow.” For many of us, it was our first look at what would soon become one of the biggest acts in rock.
News >  Further Review

How Henry Ford’s Quadricycle impacted America

125 years ago Friday, Henry Ford introduced what he called a Quadricycle – an early automobile. It didn’t have a steering wheel or rear-view mirrors or turn signals or Bluetooth so he could connect his audio system to his smartphone. Still, his Quadricycle and its descendants would profoundly impact the lives of every American.
News >  Health

The AIDS epidemic

Forty years ago Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on a lung condition found in previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles over the previous months. This paralleled growing rumors of a “gay cancer” that was quietly spreading through the gay communities in New York and San Francisco. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome – or AIDS – didn’t yet have a name. But it would soon become a household word.
News >  Further Review

A Spokane icon: the Steam Plant

Avista – known once upon a time as the Washington Water Power Company – announced last week it was selling the Central Steam Plant it bought 102 years ago to a local developer. Over the past century, the plant went from being a source of heat and electricity for downtown residents and businesses to a high tech commercial and dining hub and an icon of the Spokane skyline.
News >  Further Review

The career of baseball legend Willie Mays

On this Friday, 70 years ago, the man who would become one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all time, Willie Mays, hit his first home run. What’s more: The 20-year-old slugger for the New York Giants hit that dinger off the all-time left-handed wins leader, Warren Spahn.
News >  Further Review

The massacre in Tulsa

One hundred years ago Monday, arguably the worst racial conflict in U.S. history broke out in Tulsa, Oklahoma – in a section of town called the Greenwood District, where Black folks lived and prospered. Booker T. Washington himself coined a nickname for the area: Black Wall Street. For decades, what happened in Greenwood was referred to as a race riot, but no longer – what happened that day was no riot. It was an attack on the Black community by an armed and organized white mob.
News >  Further Review

Invasion of the cicadas

Over the next few weeks, residents on the East Coast will find themselves tree trunk deep in thousands of loudly chirping cicadas. This is the red-letter year for “Brood X” – that’s the Roman numeral 10, not the letter “X” – which is the largest of the groups of cicadas that emerge once every 17 years. And just how do the cicadas know its been 17 years? Experts don’t know, exactly. The cicadas know. But they’re not talking ...
News >  Further Review

Birth of the Moon Shot

Sixty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy informed a joint session of Congress of his intention to put an American on the moon before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossibly brash goal, given how the Soviet Union had beaten the U.S. at putting a satellite and then a man into orbit. But sometimes, it pays to dream big. Here’s how NASA followed through on Kennedy’s promise.
News >  Business

Birth of the Dow Jones Industrial Average

One hundred and twenty-five years ago Wednesday, Wall Street Journal founder and editor Charles Dow and his associate, journalist and statistician Edward Jones, launched a new way of measuring the ups and downs of the stock market. Their Dow Jones Industrial Average index would give investors – as well as newspaper readers around the country – insight into the behavior of Wall Street.
A&E >  Music

The No. 1 hits from Adele’s second album, ‘21’

On this date 10 years ago, the first single off Adele’s second album, “21,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It would be the first of three consecutive No. 1 singles for the English singer-songwriter.
News >  Further Review

How Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope paved the way for the movie industry

On this date 130 years ago, the movie industry was born when inventor Thomas Edison demonstrated his Kinetoscope – a device in which you’d drop a dime in order to watch a brief film clip. There was no hot buttered popcorn just yet. There were no trailers or post-credit scenes. And the “movie” was only 3 seconds long. But Edison’s work – and that of other inventors in the U.S. and Europe – would pave the way for James Bond, Pixar, Marvel Avengers and Disney Princesses.
News >  Further Review

The wives of Henry VIII

History tells us that Henry VIII – the second King of England of the House of Tudor – was skilled in the art of war and at jousting. He made big plans, spent freely and made huge changes in the way his country was ruled. Henry’s tall, athletic looks also made him popular with the ladies. This is despite the fact that he was known to have multiple mistresses and considered wives to be disposable.
A&E >  Movies

How Shrek saved more than just Princess Fiona

The story was a simple one: In a land of real-life fairy tales, a grumpy ogre and a loquacious donkey team up to rescue a princess who’s scheduled to marry the local nobleman. The best part, though, was that Fiona wasn’t the only one rescued.
News >  Further Review

Changes in American immigration policy

Americans have a love-hate relationship with immigration. We love to talk about when our families moved here and we love the cheap labor provided by immigrants. But we are often suspicious of immigrants, especially during times of war, recession or political upheaval. The Emergency Quota Act – which took effect 100 years ago Wednesday – and the Immigration Act of 1924 – which became law 97 years ago this month – are examples of the winds of change in American immigration policy.