Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The first circus of the season arrived in Spokane, as the Al G. Barnes Wild Animal Circus arrived for a two-day engagement at Recreation Park grounds.

The circus held an opening parade through the city, exhibiting “especially fine specimens of tigers, lions and leopards.”

“The little folks were delighted with a cage full of dogs and monkeys and the carefully groomed Shetland ponies,” the paper said.

From the food beat: Spokane shoppers had no trouble finding a wide variety of fish and seafood in Spokane in 1914. 

An ad for Victor & Johnson (“House of Quality and Service”) listed the following items for sale: red snapper, chinook salmon, chicken halibut, Pend Oreille whitefish, silver salmon, dressed shad, shad roe, extra-fine sea perch, black bass, black cod, Dolly Varden salmon (trout), Virginia oysters, steamer clams, pike, pickerel, and a variety of smoked salmon, whitefish and herring,

The shop also advertised the “largest assortment of fresh-cut cheeses in the city.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1944: The first “eye bank” designed to preserve corneal tissues for transplants was established at New York Hospital.