September 28 - October 4
September 28, 1990
On this day, the leaders of both houses of the state Legislature, Democratic House Speaker Joe King and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeannette Hayner, signed a letter proposed by King in which they promise to work to strengthen the Growth Management Act (GMA) that the Legislature enacted the previous spring.
The well-publicized letter was also signed by the minority leaders of both chambers and became known as the “four corners” letter because it encompassed all four party caucuses.
September 29, 1978
On this day, the Seattle School District began mandatory, district-wide busing to achieve racial balance. Limited mandatory busing (involving four middle schools) had been in effect since 1972.
Convinced that a homegrown plan would be better than a court-ordered one, Seattle became the first big city in the United States to undertake district-wide desegregation through massive, cross-town busing voluntarily.
October 1, 1889
On this day, Washington voters ratified the state’s first constitution and elected the first state officials. Republican Elisha P. Ferry was elected governor. The new constitution is ratified by a majority of four to one, with approximately 51,000 men casting votes.
October 1, 1892
On this day, the Seattle Fire Department Relief Association was incorporated as a result of the death of Herman Larsen, Seattle’s first firefighter killed in the line of duty. Larsen was injured in a fire drill on March 6, 1891, when a charged hose line knocked him off a pier during a drill, impaling him on spikes protruding from logs in the water. He died three days later.
October 1, 1968
On this day, Chicano (Mexican American) students at the University of Washington, mostly from the Yakima Valley, established the United Mexican American Students (UMAS), later changed to MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/Chicano de Aztlán). The group signifies the first major cohort of Mexican American students at the UW. It will be instrumental in establishing similar chapters throughout the state.
October 4, 1941
On this day, dedication ceremonies were held for the Seattle Buddhist Church, or Seattle Betsuin, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple. The building is located at 1427 S Main Street. The ceremony took place just two months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s declaration of war on Japan, followed in February 1942 by President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066 authorizing the incarceration of West Coast Japanese citizens in internment camps. Throughout the war, the church building served as the U.S. Maritime Commission office, but it opened again as the Seattle Buddhist Church on August 4, 1946.
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.
