Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokane Daily Chronicle assured its readers that Spokane would soon have “the first American troop of Girl Guides.”

Girl Guides were already well established in Great Britain, where they were the female version of the Boy Scouts. In 1911, there were no Girl Guides or Girl Scouts in the U.S.

Yet the Chronicle reported that the scoutmaster for a Spokane Boy Scout troop had decided to launch a Girl Guides troop. He even had a letter from scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell wishing him luck in the endeavor.

However, the plan apparently did not work out. Girl Guides never took hold in the U.S., but in 1912 the first Girl Scout troop was founded in Georgia.

From the Sabbath beat: A Spokane lawyer said he wanted to wipe Sunday “blue laws” from the books.

He took on the case of two members of the Scandinavian Discussion Club, a literary-debate club that Spokane police had raided when the meeting ended with its traditional social dance.

The lawyer said he would fight all laws preventing Sunday openings of grocery stores, theaters, dances, pool halls, garages and real estate offices.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1870: The U.S. Weather Bureau, which later became the National Weather Service, was established.