50 years ago in Expo history: Here’s how the fair would end up benefiting local college students even after it closed

Eastern Washington State College (as it was known then), helped ease Expo ’74’s tourist-housing shortage – and made a tidy profit as well.

The college housed tourists and Expo workers in dormitories available during the summer, banking a $45,000 surplus.

Part of that money would be used to prevent increases in student dorm fees during the fall, and the rest would be used for capital improvements in the residence halls.

In other Expo news, a top Iranian diplomat issued Iran’s “National Viewpoint Statement on the Environment” at an Expo event.

The Iranian official announced that the country was aiming to increase oil production, and said he did not “see any drastic increases in the price of oil.”

He noted that Iran was the only Middle East country exhibiting at Expo, and added, “This is an indication of the importance we attach to Expo.”

From 100 years ago: Mrs. E.J. Riley made history as the first woman in the state ever elected as chairman of a county political party committee.

She was elected Spokane County’s new Democratic Party chairman. Upon her election, she said she “felt sure that the women of Spokane appreciated the fact that Spokane’s Democratic men have been ahead of all others in recognizing the true meaning of woman’s franchise.”