Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Bessie Hall, a visitor to what The Spokesman-Review called Houseboat No. 2 off the Washington Street bridge, survived an icy plunge into the Spokane River.  In the paper’s deliberately comical account, Hall tried to “walk the plank” but ended up falling in.

A passing policeman heard the splash and a cry for help and rushed to the scene. However, a male friend had already rescued her. “Stimulants were administered” and she was able “to leave the navy yards and go ashore to her own room.”

The story makes repeated satiric references to the motley “navy” tied up on the river. It referred to the boat as the “flagship” and her male friend as the “rear admiral” of the squadron. 

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.

1909: American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson and four Inuits became the first men to reach the North Pole.

1917: Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany.

1954: A month after being criticized by newsman Edward R. Murrow on CBS’ “See It Now,” Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., given the chance to respond on the program, charged that Murrow had, in the past, “engaged in propaganda for communist causes.”