Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

D.L. Huntington, the president of Washington Water Power, returned from an inspection trip to Long Lake on the Spokane River and reported that work was proceeding well on the company’s big dam. Excavation work was in full swing, the river was being diverted through a tunnel and the company hoped to begin work on the power station soon.

“There are between 450 and 500 men at work and there has been little sickness at the plant, owing to the sanitary arrangements,” reported Huntington. “The company took considerable pains to have pure water and a good sewerage system at Long Lake.”

Finished in 1915, it would be the world’s highest spillway dam. 

From the theater beat: A gray-haired old woman named Mrs. Johns created a rowdy disturbance at the Cineograph Theater on Main Street.

Officers arrived and escorted her from the theater. They took her by the arms, but she said she could walk unaided. She took “two or three uncertain steps and fell heavily into the gutter.”

“An empty pint whisky bottle which she carried in her handbag seemed to explain her condition.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1962: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was founded in Memphis, Tenn., by entertainer Danny Thomas.