100 years ago in Spokane: Roosevelt dies, and Spokane mourns

Spokane was mourning the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt had been particularly popular in Spokane and he had visited the city four times. When he visited in 1911, 50,000 people had lined the streets to watch a parade in his honor.

On that trip, Roosvelt laid the cornerstone of the new Lewis and Clark High School. On another visit, about 15,000 gathered to hear him speak in front of the Masonic Temple.

On another visit, he dined at the home of W.H. Cowles, publisher of The Spokesman Review.

The Spokesman-Review editorial page extolled him, saying, “he drove his shining lance against the organized forces of bad government and false doctrine.”

From the flu beat: The Spanish flu epidemic was waning in Spokane, but not in surrounding towns.

A dangerous recurrence was reported in Wallace. Theaters, schools, churches and all public gatherings were once again banned there.

Wallace schools reported 150 children absent.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1945: George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce at First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York.

1994: Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack.