Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

In 1936, the newspaper routinely attended divorce court and entertained its readers with stories of love gone wrong. Here’s one day’s sample:

• Mrs. Reese was walking with her husband on the street when he took her by the arm instead of allowing her to take his arm. “It made me feel like a farmer,” she testified.

So she attempted “to give him a lesson in street etiquette.” He responded by making a far more serious breach of street etiquette. He kicked her.

Turns out, he often kicked and beat her. Divorce granted.

• Mrs. Schoonmaker always had trouble getting the attention of her husband, a drinker. The last straw came when “he never even replied to a notification their baby was born.” Divorce granted.

• Mrs. Barden testified that her husband would “fly into a rage if defeated in card games.” He also “would roar like a lion and wanted me to look at him and concentrate on him all the time.” She left him on the day he flew into a rage and “threatened to wipe out the whole family.” Divorce granted.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1909: Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22, set out from New York in a Maxwell DA on a journey to become the first woman to drive across the United States. (She and three female companions arrived in San Francisco on Aug. 7.)