Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Judge Warren W. Foster, of New York, passed through Spokane on a pleasure trip and spoke to reporters about the subject that had made him controversial: eugenics.

Judge Foster believed that criminals should be sterilized to prevent “propagation among criminals.” He also believed that “the marriage of persons physically unfit is a crime.” 

He said that his beliefs were based on “a branch of the science of eugenics, which every sane person admits is worthy of earnest consideration.”

From the golf beat: The Spokesman-Review wrote an editorial extolling the virtues of golf in Spokane and vicinity.

“There are courses here and at Hayden Lake where the golfer can find opportunities and bunkers equal to any on the eastern links,” said the editorial.

It also made the following highly questionable assertion: “The climate allows (a golfer) to play outdoors more days in the year in the Spokane country than he can do at any place east of the Rockies.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1969: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon after reaching the surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module.