This day in history: Aerosmith, bumped in Spokane concert in favor of BTO, walked out. Spokane war hero joins French fight in Morocco

From 1975: Both the Spokane County commissioners and the rock band Aerosmith were unhappy about the rock festival held over the weekend at the Interstate Fairgrounds baseball park.

The commissioners were unhappy because of complaints by nearby residents about noise and litter.

The members of Aerosmith were unhappy because they were bumped from their place in the program by Bachman-Turner Overdrive .

They were scheduled to perform after Journey and before BTO. But because of threatened rain and thunderstorms, the concert promoters decided to let BTO take the stage after Journey, reasoning that more persons would want to hear BTO than Aerosmith if the concert was cut short by rain.

The members of Aerosmith “got upset, packed up their things, and left the concert,” said the promoter.

The band’s fans were equally upset, and many of them complained that they had “driven here from Montana and Canada just to see that group.”

From 1925: Spokane war hero Lt. Col. Charles Sweeney was offering his services as a machine-gunner to the French Army in its war in Morocco.

The Associated Press reported that Sweeney was one of four Americans who had served in the French Foreign Legion during the world war and now had re-enlisted in Paris.

Sweeney had been wounded in the Champagne offensive in 1915 and was the “first American to win the medal of the Legion of Honor.”

His sister, identified as Mrs. P.J. Finucane of Spokane, responded to the news by saying, “Charlie is too old for such service. I don’t see why he did it.”