This day in history: A plan to create the Washington lottery was panned in the Legislature

From 1975: A proposal to create a state lottery ran into serious opposition in Olympia.

“A lottery is a sleazy type of business for the state of Washington to be in,” said one state representative.

He said it would establish a state-sanctioned “numbers racket.” Another legislator called it a “cruel tax upon the poor.”

The lottery idea gained no traction in the 1975 Legislature, but would be approved in 1982.

In other news, Washington State University purchased Expo ’74’s Afro-American Pavilion – but not for use as a history exhibit.

The university said it planned to relocate the building and use it for “class space and storage” at the university’s farm complex.

From 1925: A group of business people proposed a new course of study at the University of Washington: laundry studies.

“I believe that the adoption of such a plan would be a wonderful means of bringing the laundry service up to a higher degree of efficiency … (and) would be an outstanding feature of education on the West Coast,” said the head of Spokane’s Crystal Laundry.

The idea was floated at the Washington Laundry Owners Association meeting at the Davenport Hotel, and was approved unanimously.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1173: Pope Alexander III canonizes Archbishop of Canterbury, England, Thomas Becket, who was killed by knights after King Henry II and Becket argued over church privileges. Following his death, pilgrims would travel to Becket’s resting place in Canterbury, which would inspire Geoffry Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” centuries later.