Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A young wife was seeking a divorce from her husband after he tried to set a devious trap for her.

The wife, “an attractive young woman of the brunette type,” told the court that one day, when her husband was out of town, she received a box of flowers and some candy via messenger boy. The box had a card with a name she didn’t recognize and the message, “From an old sweetheart. Will call you up soon after you receive the flowers.”

She subsequently received a call from somebody asking her to go to the dinner and the theater with him. The voice was not-too-artfully disguised.

“I knew at once that it was my husband’s voice,” she said. “… I asked him why he should call me up this way. I scolded him for it.”

The next day he admitted the entire scheme.

She also testified that her husband had demanded that she have “two operations,” of a mysterious nature, and she didn’t want to.

The husband took the stand and blamed everything on his mother-in-law, whom he called a “she-devil.” Whenever he tried to hug or kiss his wife his mother-in-law would say, “Cut it out.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1950: The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North. … 1985: Route 66, which stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., passed into history as officials decertified the road.