Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane’s police commissioner summarily removed the “stars” (badges) from two “special police women” after they gave an interview about the city’s “social evil” problem (prostitution).

One of the women told the press that the keeper of a “lodging house,” upon seeing their police badges, immediately got her purse and asked “how much they wanted.”

An irate Commissioner Hayden said the two women had been appointed at the request of the Child Welfare League to “look after girls in the dance halls.”

“Instead of that, you launched into other fields and have given out interviews discrediting the male officers on the force, most of whom are self-respecting men of families,” Hayden said. “You were not appointed to meddle into these things and I shall now demand the immediate return of your stars.”

One of the women made an even more serious charge. She said she had tracked down a Spokane girl who was being detained in a lodging house against her will, but the commissioner refused to take action.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1616: English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare, 52, died on what has been regarded as the anniversary of his birth in 1564. … 1962: NASA launched Ranger 4 on a mission to the moon. The spacecraft was supposed to transmit pictures and data just before crashing into the lunar surface three days later; however, due to equipment malfunction, no data was sent.