Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Word continued to trickle in about holiday fireworks accidents. The most serious occurred on a houseboat on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Dr. J.G. Matthews of Coeur d’Alene was helping to set off the fireworks on the boat. The last piece was a “fireworks flower pot” – a floral display. He bent to light the fuse and the fireworks went off the moment he applied the match.

The doctor was badly burned in the face and eyes and taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Spokane. It was feared that he would lose the sight in at least one of his eyes.

The second accident occurred in Spokane when Edith MacFarlane, 4, wandered too close to a blank cartridge fired off by her brother.

Powder was embedded in her eyes and she suffered burns on her face.

From the labor beat: Eric Lantana, the Finnish miner who attacked the mayor of Butte with a knife, died of his gunshot wound.

The mayor shot Lantana in the abdomen after Lantana confronted the mayor in his City Hall office. The bullet apparently penetrated Lantana’s liver.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1944: An estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.