This day in history: Spokane man was aboard one of last commercial flights to leave Saigon. Thousands of boys featured in downtown parade.

From 1975: L.V. “Mick” Brown Jr., of Spokane, was an eyewitness to the chaotic evacuation playing out in Saigon, Vietnam, over the week.

He was booked on one of the last commercial flights to leave Saigon. The airport was crowded with people trying to get out. His plane took on as many nonpaying passengers as possible, including about 100 Vietnamese infants.

“You take a look at their faces and see what you’re saving them from,” Brown said. “No human could say ‘no.’ It’s hard to get mad at anybody at this point. People seemed to be relatively calm – more so than I saw on television last night.”

He said people were less concerned about the deteriorating conditions than they were about adjusting to their unknown destinations.

He volunteered to help with the children, “and tried to reassure them that everything was cool,” he said.

From 1925: More than 7,000 grade school and high school boys marched down Riverside Avenue as part of International Boys’ Week festivities.

“Proud parents and friends of the boys, costumed in gay colors and carrying their school banners and pennants, crowded the sidewalks from Stevens Street to the reviewing stand on Lincoln Street.”

“Each group was led by the boy colonel of the various schools,” the Chronicle wrote.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1937: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships and imposes an arms embargo on warring nations.

1939: Batman first appears in “Detective Comics” No. 27.