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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Louise Carver, an actress and comedienne touring in a vaudeville sketch at the Empress Theater in Spokane, laid claim to an odd distinction: the ugliest woman on the American stage.

She said that she was aware that a French actress named Claudine Polaire was declared the homeliest actress in France, yet “I don’t believe she has anything on me when it comes to ugliness.”

From the seafood beat: The Humane Society in Spokane had been asked to launch a “campaign of kindness” in favor of the lowly oyster, which is “ruthlessly torn from its shell and eaten alive.” However, the society asked for an expert opinion from Emma Howe, a bacteriologist from the Oregon State Board of Health. She gave the oyster no sympathy.

She said an oyster has no feelings, because it has practically “no nervous system.”

If people really wanted to feel sorry for an animal, Howe suggested the turkey, which is “bled to death in a manner that is really cruel.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1512: Cartographer Gerardus Mercator, creator of the Mercator Projection map of the world, was born in Flanders in the Holy Roman Empire.

1963: Country music performers Patsy Cline, “Cowboy” Copas and “Hawkshaw” Hawkins died in a plane crash near Camden, Tenn., that also claimed the life of pilot Randy Hughes (Cline’s manager).