50 years ago in Expo history: Promising signs for the fair’s success were mounting, along with a new exhibitor focused on women

The National Organization for Women (NOW) was preparing plans for an Expo symposium on women and the environment.

Proposed topics included “Exploring Alternate Lifestyles,” “Exploring Alternate Energy Sources: Woman as Consumer” and “Women in Technology.”

Marion Moos of NOW said her organization was pursuing a $50,000 grant to fund the symposium.

In other Expo news, the Chronicle cited a promising trend: Inquiries about Spokane lodging were topping 1,000 per day, which indicated “tremendous interest” in the fair.

Also, advance ticket sales already topped $2.6 million. These trends helped alleviate the lingering concerns that Spokane would throw a giant party and nobody would come.

From 100 years ago: The Ku Klux Klan was behind a proposed Washington state initiative that would have banned all private religious schools in the state.

It was modeled after a notorious measure backed by the KKK in Oregon that passed the year before. It was widely seen as an attack on Catholic schools.

“It threatens to plunge this state into a bitter religious and racial war,” said the bill’s principal opponent in Olympia.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1793: The first hot-air balloon flight in the U.S. lifts off in Philadelphia, piloted by French inventor Jean-Pierre Blanchard, who pioneered flight by gas balloon.

1861: Mississippi secedes from the Union amid the Civil War.

1947: Twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth “Betty” Short, aka the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive. Short would be found dead in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Jan. 15. The investigation into her slaying would go cold.