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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A Spokane woman stood in a crowd of theatergoers at Riverside Avenue and Post Street, pulled a pearl-handled revolver and took aim at her husband.

The crowd was immediately “thrown into a panic,” with people running and ducking for cover. An alert police officer wrested the gun away from her before she got a shot off.

Her defense?

Her husband was about to elope with a “Hillyard widow.” She aimed to stop him.

Both wife and husband were held in jail that night. In court the next morning, the repentant husband promised to “quit running around” with the Hillyard widow. The couple made up on the spot.

The judge fined them each $5, and they walked out of the courtroom arm in arm.

From the census beat: The federal government announced its final 1910 census tally for Coeur d’Alene: 7,291.

That was a huge increase from 1900, when the city had only 508 residents.

It also made Coeur d’Alene the third-largest city in Idaho, behind Boise and Pocatello. Lewiston came in at 6,043 residents in the 1910 census.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1935: Fugitive gangster Fred Barker and his mother, Kate “Ma” Barker, were killed in a shootout with the FBI at Lake Weir, Fla.