Week 26: June 29 - July 5
June 30, 1962
On this day, delegates to the First World Conference on National Parks convened at Seattle’s Olympic Hotel to begin a seven-day conference attended by hundreds of government officials and conservationists. The announced theme for the conference was simple: “National parks are of international significance.” The conference attracted important leaders, including the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the director of the National Park Service, and leading conservationists from every continent except Antarctica.
June 30, 2013
On this day, Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law Senate Bill 5367, implementing the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan created to address a growing water deficit in the Yakima River Basin. The ambitious plan came after years of droughts, litigation suits, studies, and assessments, and was expected to address water resource and ecosystem problems affecting fish passage and habitat, as well as provide reliable water for agricultural, domestic, and municipal customers.
July 1, 1963
On this day, 35 young people staged the first sit-in of the civil rights movement in Seattle in the offices of Mayor Gordon S. Clinton. They were protesting the composition of a 12-member human rights commission proposed by Clinton. They occupy the mayor’s offices for 24 hours before leaving. There are no incidents and no arrests.
July 1, 1977
On this day, the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle, the Most Reverend Raymond G. Hunthausen, publicly defended the rights of gays and lesbians. The letter was reprinted in the Seattle Gay News.
Archbishop Hunthausen had many disagreements with the Vatican over gay rights, women’s rights, and other social issues.
July 1, 1997
On this day, after battling Spokane County and the City of Spokane for 11 years, the Marks family – leaders of the city’s small Romani community – was awarded a settlement of $1.43 million to conclude a fight over illegal 1986 police searches of the homes of James “Jimmy” Marks and his parents. First filing suit for $40 million, then upping that figure to $59 million, the Marks family settled for the much-smaller sum rather than risk an adverse ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
July 4, 2026
On this day, commemorations and celebrations abound across Washington State, marking the nation’s Semiquincentennial (250th) anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
July 5, 1841
On this day, the crew and Marines of the Wilkes Expedition held the first Fourth of July celebration in the Puget Sound region. The men were from two expedition ships anchored in the sound off the British trading post Fort Nisqually, at what would later become the city of DuPont in western Pierce County. The celebration took place on Mission Prairie, with events at the Wilkes Observatory, Fort Nisqually, and the Nisqually Mission House. Expedition crews enjoyed a roasted ox and horse races.
July 5, 1910
On this day, Ella M. Russell, Everett’s Suffrage Club president, rose to her feet before 5,500 people in a Billy Sunday crusade in Everett to answer an attack on women’s suffrage. The attack came from Mrs. Rae Muirhead, a Bible speaker with the Sunday campaign.
The newsworthy event captured front-page coverage in both of Everett’s daily newspapers the following day. Mrs. Muirhead opposed women’s suffrage and, in her personal testimony, stated that a woman’s role was to teach her sons to vote properly.
This post is in partnership with HistoryLink, and Warren Seyler, former chairman Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Black Muse Resource Center, and the Living Arts Cultural Heritage.
We encourage you to engage in further research through your local historic societies, museums, archives, and community.
