Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A coal-miners’ strike in Fernie, B.C., turned violent after 400 black miners arrived as strikebreakers.

A large crowd of striking white miners met the train at the station and began to hoot and jeer. Police escorted most of the black miners to safety, but several were chased by the mob after they were separated from their group.

One of the black miners headed for the north end of town, pausing to suddenly turn and fire at his pursuers.

“He came nearer shooting his protectors, the police, than he did his enemies,” said a report in The Spokesman-Review.

The police chief and an assistant ducked for cover. The mob ran past them and by the time the officers recovered the black miner “was sprawling on the ground, his pistol gone and receiving showers of blows.” The police took the black miner to the city jail for his own protection.

Another black miner was trapped in his room at the Roma Hotel. He brandished a revolver and said that if anybody tried to enter, he “would not be hanged for only one death.” Police later escorted him to the city jail for his own protection.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

2006: Saddam Hussein was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang by the Iraqi High Tribunal.