This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Chinese New Year was celebrated “with the clanging of native gongs, the patter of their own peculiar wooden blocks, and the chanting of weird oriental music” in Spokane’s Chinatown, where the INB Performing Arts Center parking lots are today.

“Thousands of small firecrackers in long strings suspended from bamboo poles were set off in front of the Lotus Block,” said The Spokesman-Review. “The big bombs of other celebrations were banned last night on the order of Chief W.J. Doust and the Celestials contented themselves with the smaller noisemakers.”

Feasting, games and the drinking of Chinese wine ensued.

From the libel beat: The dean of All Saints Cathedral dropped his $50,000 libel suit against the Spokane Press when the paper issued a retraction. This small but feisty newspaper had earlier implied that the dean had been accused of misconduct with a woman not his wife.

The paper’s retraction specified that the dean had merely been attempting to help a woman who was “sick and in trouble” and who was later arrested on a charge of insanity.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1953: “Bwana Devil,” the movie that heralded the 3-D fad of the 1950s, had its New York opening.