50 years ago in Expo history: An elite Soviet ballet troupe pulled out of the fair citing ‘transportation uncertainties’

The Soviet Union’s Kirov Ballet canceled its Expo ’74 performance – and its entire American tour.

“Transportation uncertainties” were cited as the reason.

This was a disappointment, because the Kirov was one of the most famous ballet companies in the world.

Yet there was some good news, because several other Soviet dance groups were confirmed for performances in the new “opera house of the Washington State Pavilion.”

The Moiseyev Dancers and the Georgian State Singers and Dancers were both booked for three-day stints.

Ballet fans would still have plenty to look forward to, with the Joffrey City Centre Ballet, the Australian Ballet and the London Ballet with Margot Fonteyn on the schedule.

From 100 years ago: John O’Toole, 21, confessed that he fatally shot grocer Rudolph Schmid in his Peaceful Valley grocery store.

O’Toole told detectives that he was brandishing the gun during the holdup. Then he became nervous and “the gun was accidentally discharged.”

Police said O’Toole feared that the “hangman’s noose” was coming closer and was “induced to break down after repeated questionings.”

Police believed that another man, who was rooming with O’Toole at a local hotel, was the other half of the holdup duo. O’Toole said he and the other man, an ex-con, had come to Spokane from Seattle two weeks earlier.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1535: Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima in Peru.