Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Noted black educator Booker T. Washington was the keynote speaker at the Spokane Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Washington told the audience about his famous school at Tuskegee, Ala., and the conditions in that part of the country.

“You people rarely hear the best reports of conditions in the South, but they are improving rapidly and the white people of the South are becoming interested in the upkeep of the schools, as they find that they are making better and more useful citizens of the colored race,” Washington said. “I hope to prove to the world that two races different in color and in their source can live in the same country in perfect harmony and of service to each other.”

From the accident beat: Six men, a wagon and a team of horses were caught in a mud- and rockslide while excavating the site of the Davenport Hotel.

The men escaped injury, but two horses died.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1513: Giovanni de’ Medici was proclaimed pope, succeeding Julius II; he took the name Leo X.

2004: Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding more than 2,000 in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants.

2011: A magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station.