This day in history: Unemployment topped 10% in Spokane, 25% in Colville

From 1975: Unemployment was at high levels throughout the U.S. and Spokane was certainly not spared.

Spokane’s unemployment rate as of Feb. 1 was 10.4% , up from 9.6 percent a week earlier.

The situation was even more dire in Colville, which reported a 25.8 % unemployment rate, the highest in the state.

The statewide unemployment rate was at 10.9% .

The outlook was not rosy, because Kaiser had just announced new layoffs.

From 1925: Spokane pioneer aviators Nick Hamer and A.E. Easterbrook had a close call when heavy fog forced their “big DeHaviland airplane” into an emergency landing in Creswell, Oregon.

The two men were flying the DeHaviland from Redding, California, to Spokane because the plane was to be the “flagship of the National Guard aerial unit here.”

The fog became so bad the pilots could not continue to Portland as planned. The only available field thy could find was full of mud. The pilots were able to get the plane down safely, but the craft became mired in the muddy field. A team of horses was required to pull the plane out.

No harm was done to either plane or pilots and they expected to be able to continue on as soon as the weather cleared.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1879: French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi is awarded a U.S. patent for his design for the Statue of Liberty.

1884: Russian police seize all copies of Leo Tolstoy’s book “What I Believe In.”

1943: The first edition of the Dutch resistance newspaper Trouw is published amid World War II.

1943: Members of the student nonviolent resistance group “White Rose” are arrested by Nazis after distributing pamphlets in Munich.