Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Miss Nana Sullivan, an actress, had recently watched a performance of “The Yellow Ticket,” in which a woman kills the chief of the Russian secret police with a hat pin.

Little did she know that she would soon need to employ the same weapon on a shadowy miscreant in Spokane.

Miss Sullivan was walking home from the Davenport Hotel’s restaurant at 1 a.m., after an evening at the theater, when she was followed by two men.

One of them ran up beside her and endeavored to snatch her purse. Her purse was securely strapped to her wrist, however, and she managed to hold on to it and “evade the ruffian’s efforts to pinion her arms.”

She also managed to draw from her hat the long pin that held it in place. She made several thrusts at the ruffian, and she was certain that one of those thrusts was a wounding jab in his shoulder.

He realized he had “selected the wrong person as a victim,” and he and his companion took off running. Miss Sullivan’s screams attracted the attention of a police officer on the beat, who fired a shot at the retreating figures.

However, they disappeared into the darkness and escaped.

Also on this date

44 B.C.: Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.