Keyword(s): Nick Rousso
Bob’s Chile Parlor was a gambling den in downtown Seattle in the 1950s and 1960s, an era when city officials gave tacit approval to illegal vice and police extorted payoffs from club owners and ...
Kevin Daniels (b. 1957) has been a leading figure in Seattle real-estate development and historic preservation for more than 35 years. Born in Idaho and educated at Gonzaga University in Spokane, he b...
Herman "H. B." Earling was an influential turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest railroad man. An older brother, Adelbert "A. J." Earling, served as the president of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Pa...
Commercial farming in the Skagit Valley began in earnest in the 1880s after much of the Skagit River's floodplain was walled off behind dikes, converting a maze of marshes, streams, and open channels ...
Warren Lea Gazzam (1863-1961), an Alabama-born son of a Confederate soldier, lived a long and eventful life. One of his family members wrote that when Gazzam died at age 97, "even the briefest account...
A group of about a dozen British expatriates introduced golf to Washington in 1894 when they founded the Tacoma Golf Club and built the state's first golf course. By 1898, similar clubs had been estab...
Washington was known for producing premium grapes long before it became famous for its premium wines. The commercial grape industry dates to the early 1900s, when widespread irrigation in Eastern Wash...
Guyle Fielder (b. 1930), Seattle's greatest hockey player, was a high-scoring center from small-town Saskatchewan. A mighty mite at 5 feet 9 inches and 160 pounds, Fielder was a dazzling skater, a mae...
After discovering the joys of wine at age 21 during a trek across Europe and Asia, Ron Irvine spent the rest of his working life immersed in the Washington wine industry. In 1971, having just returned...
Les Keiter was Seattle-born and raised but made his mark in New York City, where from 1953 until 1963 he was the voice of the New York Giants football team, the Knicks basketball club, and occasionall...
The Lifelong AIDS Alliance began in 2001 when two Seattle organizations fighting AIDS — the Chicken Soup Brigade and the Northwest AIDS Foundation — merged into one. As the number of AIDS-...
Despite persistent rain in the Pacific Northwest, fire has figured prominently in the history of the region. Fire was once a natural part of the environment, and Indigenous people used it in their que...
Pier 55 was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1900, one of its many piers along Seattle's central waterfront. In September 1901, a little more than a year after it was completed, the pier coll...
After the Pike Place Market opened in 1907, fish sellers joined vegetable farmers, fruit growers, flower vendors, butchers, bakers, and other merchants to create a beloved central marketplace for Seat...
On July 18, 1897, one day after the Klondike gold rush begins in earnest when the steamship Portland docks at Seattle carrying 68 miners and two tons of gold lifted from the Klondike River, an adverti...
On September 14, 1901, Pier 4, commonly known as the White Star Dock, collapses into Elliott Bay on Seattle's central waterfront. The calamity occurs at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and there are no fata...
On March 22, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Cullen-Harrision Act, legalizing the manufacture of beer and wine. The U.S. Alcohol Tax Unit -- forerunner of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacc...
On December 14, 1936, the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of KVOS, a Bellingham radio station, in its ongoing feud with the Bellingham Herald newspaper. Acting as the Herald's proxy, T...
On August 16, 1958, Seattle's hockey outlook brightens with word that the Seattle Americans have been sold to a local group led by Marvin Burke, owner of Sportcaster Corporation in Seattle and develop...
On May 25, 1963, at a track meet in Modesto, California, University of Washington teammates Phil Shinnick and Brian Sternberg set new world records. Shinnick, a Spokane native, leaps 27 feet, 4 inches...
On October 21, 1967, the Seattle SuperSonics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) expansion team, record their first victory, a 117-110 overtime thriller against the San Diego Rockets in front of ...
On April 21, 1968, a goal by Guyle Fielder (b. 1930) in sudden-death overtime gives the Seattle Totems a stunning 7-6 victory over the Portland Buckaroos in Game 2 of the Western Hockey League finals....
On April 2, 1969, Washington Governor Dan Evans (1925-2024) signs House Bill 100 – commonly known as the California Wine Bill. The new law removes trade barriers protecting Washington's moribund...
On October 13, 1974, The Los Angeles Times announces the results of a wine competition sponsored by the newspaper in which a Riesling from Washington – Ste. Michelle Vineyards' 1972 Jo...
On January 1, 1979, after nearly four years in Alburquerque, New Mexico, Bill Gates (b. 1955) and Paul Allen (1953-2018) move their fledgling computer-software company to Bellevue. The move returns th...
On October 31, 1981, "The Wave" -- a staple of fan participation at U.S. sporting events since the early 1980s -- makes its unofficial debut at a University of Washington football game in Seattle.&nbs...
On April 14, 1983, F. W. Langguth Winery unveils its first vintage of Washington wines at the annual KCTS Festival of Wines in Seattle. Langguth, a German winemaking behemoth, is the first major forei...
On October 12, 1983, the Orion Multi-Service Center opens in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. A safe haven for homeless youth, the center occupies 6,800 square feet in a converted clothing warehouse a...