This day in history: Selective Service office closes following end to Vietnam War. Logger dies hopping train

From 1976: The Selective Service office in Spokane made a historic announcement: It would close at the end of the month.

This was part of a nationwide shutdown of the military draft, following the end of the Vietnam War. The Selective Service had been operating on a standby “mothball” status for a while, “ready to swing into action of needed.” But now a new edict fully deactivated the draft.

“It will halt peacetime processing of men, including registration and the annual draft lottery,” The Spokesman-Review wrote.

Meanwhile an amnesty program for Vietnam-era draft resisters stayed in place.

From 1926: A logger from the Spirit Lake area made a fatal mistake while attempting to hop a freight train near Mica Peak.

William Joles fell and the train “severed his body in half.”

Joles and a companion had hopped a freight train in Spokane, but discovered that they had caught the wrong branch of the rail line. The train’s fireman told them that they could get off the train and catch a return freight back to Spokane.

The fireman had warned the inbound freight train would be “rolling fast” – and that proved correct.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1889: United State Department of Agriculture establishes as a Cabinet-level agency.

1950: Sen. Joseph McCarthy announces he has a list of 205 communists working in the State Department.

1985: Madonna’s album “Like a Virgin” hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three weeks.