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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

Mary Blaylock, 16, wanted to marry Edward Johnson, 27. Because she was under the legal age, her father had to provide written consent.

So he did. Sort of.

Here’s the note, as found in the couple’s marriage file at the auditor’s office: “I will say that I believe you are too young to be married. I think you had better put it off a year or more yet. But if you want her and she wants you and nothing else will do you, go ahead and get married.”

From the dental beat: A Spokane dentist, addressing the Spokane County Dental Society, was outraged by an all-too-common problem: patients who make appointments and fail to show up.

He called them “highwaymen in polite form.”

“Dentists lose much time by patients not keeping their appointments,” he said. “But if asked to pay for lost time, they are indignant.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, conducted the first successful manned powered-airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer. … 1944: The U.S. Army announced it was ending its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast. … 1992: President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.