Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane was considering several new laws to deal with problems created by a massive proliferation of automobiles.

One proposed law would reduce the volume of automobile horns. The purpose of the law would be “to diminish the din which the warning horns sometimes make along the downtown streets, but also to make more effective a milder announcement of a machine’s approach.”

Another law would ban owners from locking their autos while parked downtown. The law would prohibit autos from being “disabled in any way so that it cannot be quickly removed in case of fire or other emergency.”

From the bridge beat: The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a front-page photo of the massive new steel bridge being built by the OWR&N (the “North Coast Railroad”) across the Spokane River at approximately the place where Hangman Creek enters it. 

The purpose of the photo was to show how unsightly the steel-girder bridge looked, and to encourage the railroad to build “a more sightly concrete bridge” for its other planned bridge project, near Monroe Street.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1974: President Richard Nixon announced his resignation, effective the next day, following damaging new revelations in the Watergate scandal.