This day in history: As Sea World used explosives and airplanes to capture orcas in Puget Sound, 2 escaped through net

From 1976: The saga of five captured orcas in Puget Sound – a story which had captivated the state for days – took a dramatic turn when two of the orcas slashed their way through a net and escaped.

Sea World, Inc., had used airplanes and explosives to herd the six whales into a pen. Conservationists staged protests, on the grounds that the orcas were captured inhumanely and the orcas were endangered in Puget Sound. A judge had recently ruled the capture was inhumane and a further decision was pending on whether Sea World’s federal permit was valid.

Meanwhile, two of the orcas took the matter into their own hands (flukes?) and ripped through the netting to freedom.

From 1926: An up-and-coming new business district – the Monroe-Broadway district – was attracting attention from the city’s shoppers.

It was considered an “outlying” business district, because it was a bit north of downtown, but business owners had recently developed a Monroe-Broadway Commercial Association which was working hard for improvements in the neighborhood.

It had already secured “curb lighting” (street lighting) for North Monroe, and was now lobbying for a improvements on Lincoln Street and a civic swimming pool for the northeast part of the city – currently “without such facilities.”

The Spokesman-Review said that business rivalries, feuds, “individual hatreds and racial and religious suspicions” commonly held back outlying commercial districts. The Monroe-Broadway district was “no exception,” but in the prior four years had overcome these kinds of differences and worked harmoniously for the common good.