50 years ago in Expo history: Was the fair ‘the best thing that has happened to Spokane’ in decades? At least one reader thought so

Lessley G. Perring, of Spokane, wrote in a letter to the editor that “Expo ’74 was the best thing that has happened to Spokane in the 28 years I have lived here.”

“I am sure it has a future like no other city in the whole country,” Perring wrote.

Perring also praised the Chronicle’s whimsical daily column, the Expositor.

“I have cut them all out and put them in a box,” Perring wrote. “What for? I am not just exactly sure, but somehow I feel that it would be fun to re-read them in a year or so.”

From 100 years ago: Police were mystified over two missing-persons cases.

Paul Griffith, 13, a Jefferson School student, apparently ran away from home five days earlier and had not been seen since. Police had only one clue: The boy had apparently mentioned St. Maries to his school friends.

The other, unrelated, case was that of W.H. Raleigh, 47, an employee of the Joyner Drug Co. He left home for work a day earlier and had not been seen since.

His wife reported one odd development: A man called her at home the day after he disappeared, claiming to be Mr. Raleigh, and said he would be “out of the house a short time.”

However, his wife said the voice “did not sound familiar.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1791: George Washington hosts the first U.S. cabinet meeting at his home in Philadelphia with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.