Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A fresh blanket of snow made kids all over the region happy on Christmas Day.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that the hills “on the South Side and far out to the north” were covered with coasters, “many with new sleds, resplendent in their bright varnish.”

This proved, said the paper, that “Santa Claus had been advised in advance that this was to be a White Christmas.”

Meanwhile, skaters were busy at Manito, Cannon Hill and other parks, gliding on the frozen ponds.

From the Christmas beat: The cook at Spokane’s county jail plucked 51 chickens and a large number of geese so that “all county charges might enjoy their Christmas dinner.”

Prisoners at the county’s jails were also given a “generous supply of sweet potatoes.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1776: Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J. … 1818: “Silent Night (Stille Nacht),” written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, was publicly performed for the first time during the Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria. … 1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.