Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A jury heard conflicting evidence in the trial of a Spokane woman charged with conducting a “disorderly house” at 26th Avenue and Grand Boulevard near Manito Park.

Police claimed that they had witnessed men and women “in various states of intoxication” frequent the house up until midnight. They also saw one woman sitting on a man’s lap and another woman smoking cigarettes.

But neighbors testified they had seen or heard nothing except for “music and singing of a somewhat boisterous nature.”

The jury acquitted her.

From the arts beat: It was front page news when actress Jessie Shirley announced that she planned to open and manage her own theater in Spokane.

An earlier company, the Jessie Shirley Players, set a record with 957 consecutive performances ending in 1909. That streak stopped when Shirley became sick with a long, unspecified illness. Now she was recovered and ready to open the Jessie Shirley Theater.

“Miss Shirley is recognized here and in New York as a most successful actress,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1865: John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, was surrounded by federal troops near Bowling Green, Va., and killed.