Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A reluctant “sweetheart” foiled a murder attempt by a love-struck “maniac” by agreeing – desperately – to marry him.

The man took her for a buggy ride in the country. Then he stopped, stood over her with a gun and “announced, with the grandeur of a madman, that she had seen her loved ones for the last time.”

She screamed and pleaded. Only when she agreed to marry him did he put the gun away and take her back to town.

The woman later said she didn’t want to prosecute the man because he was “crazy.”

From the entertainment file: Spokane Mayor N.S. Pratt was taking a stern look at the “Fun Theater” (aka the Unique Theater) on charges that its 10-cent burlesque shows were immoral.

Police had information that the theater was staging “indecent songs and stunts.”

From the census file: Census enumerators were worried that the state’s Indian population was plummeting. One census agent said he found cases of families in which only one child survived out of eight births.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1866: Congress authorized minting of the first five-cent piece. … 1929: The first Academy Awards were presented.