Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

About 300 people watched in horror as three Spokane boys struggled in the icy waters of Liberty Lake after their sailboat “turned turtle” in rough waters.

They shouted for help but were a half-mile from shore. Two boys managed to cling to the upturned hull, but young George Cosgrove was “going down for the second time.”

A pleasure launch manned by Fred Wright, Roy Kalez and Coin Ernst rushed to the scene. They used a boathook to pull Cosgrove out of the water, nearly unconscious. They were also able to pull the other two boys into the boat.

All received medical attention but were recovering.

From the vaudeville beat: The fiance of a well-known lion tamer, who had recently played the Pantages Theater in Spokane, was killed and partially devoured by six lions during a stop in Chicago.

Emerson Dietrich entered the lions’ train car to “play” with the lions when one of them slunk around behind him and attacked. The others soon joined in.

The lion tamer, who went by the name of Madame Adgie, had played Spokane three times in the last several years and was well-known to thousands in Spokane.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights.”