This day in history: North Central senior filled in for her sick dad to give sermon. 75,000 attended Fairchild open house

From 1976: An estimated 75,000 people attended the Fairchild Air Force Base Open House, and were treated to a sight “which resembled Rodan, the infamous flying prehistorical reptile of Japanese filmmaking fame,” according to The Spokesman-Review.

It was a British Royal Air Force Vulcan Bomber that made “a series of noisy low-level passes.” The bomber had a “massive, delta-shaped wing spread.”

The Vulcan had flown in from England especially for the open house.

Spectators also were treated to various other flyovers, along with “Air Force paramedic parachute jumps from helicopters.”

The wind created a few problems with those jumps, and “one jumper brushed off the roof of a large hangar but escaped injury.”

From 1926: The Sunday sermon at the Corbin Park Methodist Church was delivered by a fill-in speaker: Lucille Rexroad, a senior at North Central High School.

Her father, the Rev. C.A. Rexroad, had officiated at a wedding earlier in the day and “on his return home was too ill to go into the pulpit.” A doctor ordered him to remain in bed and keep quiet until an X-ray exam could be done.

Lucille, his daughter, “took his sermon notes and read them during a short service.

The title of the sermon was fitting: “Rough Patches in the Path of Life.” The pastor had written that “few escape trouble, and that those who had experienced smooth sailing for a long time eventually may find troubles coming thick and fast.”