This day in history: A pre-disgrace Bill Cosby performed with ‘punch’ in Spokane

From 1975: Bill Cosby performed his comedy act at the Spokane Opera House, and he continued “to slice cleanly across the entire realm of human experience.”

At least, that’s what Spokesman-Review critic Les Blumenthal said.

“Cosby is a craftsman, building foundations for his material and it is this attention to detail that gives his style its punch,” Blumenthal wrote.

Cosby had performed at Expo ’74 a year earlier. Blumenthal said “most of the material used Tuesday night was new to Spokane, and that which he used last year was just as funny the second time around.”

From 1925: The Poor Clare Sisters would be getting a new home in Spokane. The sisters in the Catholic order formerly occupied a three-story building at Mission and Cincinnati, but it was sold to the Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence and converted to “an old people’s home.”

Now, the Poor Clare order had purchased a block at Princeton and Cedar and planned to build a three-story brick building, with 30 rooms and a large chapel.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1863: President Abraham Lincoln issues “eye-for-an-eye” order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every Black prisoner shot.

1928: George Eastman shows the first amateur color motion pictures to guests, including Thomas Edison, at his New York house.

1935: Penquin publishes its first book, starting the revolution of the paperback. Priced at sixpence each, paperbacks featured a distinctive design and a color-coded system: orange for fiction, blue for biography and green for crime.