Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 50 years ago

A 22-year-old Quincy, Wash., farm laborer, spurned by a young lady, followed her home and then tried to enter – through the chimney.

He was slender enough at 122 pounds to make it partway down. But then he became stuck. A fire was burning in a stove, which didn’t improve his comfort level.

The girl’s grandfather heard muffled cries for help but couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. The girl called police. They looked down the chimney and tried, unsuccessfully, to fish him out with a rope.

So they smashed a hole through the brick and hauled him out. Then they hauled him off to jail. He said he meant no harm.

From the school beat: A $2.2 million school special levy passed in Spokane in 1960 by whopping margin of 78 percent to 22 percent. It won a majority in every single precinct.

One precinct passed it by a vote of 233 to 17. The school board president described herself as “highly pleased.”

Also today

( From the Associated Press )

1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines. … 1570: Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I. … 1965: Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow died in Pawling, N.Y., two days after turning 57.