Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Mayor Hindley played the censor again, this time banning a French vaudeville act called “La Petite Gosse.”

He said the troupe depicted scenes of the “brutal dancing of Paris underworld resorts.”

Brutal dancing?

He was talking about Parisian “apache dancing,” a dance fad that re-enacted a violent encounter between a man and a woman, complete with mock slaps and punches.

From the fishing beat: The trout in the Spokane River were huge in 1912 – if you can believe fishermen (and women).

Here’s a partial list of catches they called in to the day’s newspaper:

• Five rainbow trout caught in the river just below College Avenue. The largest was 2  1/2 pounds.

• Fifteen trout, including a 3  1/2-pounder caught just below the end of the Maxwell Avenue streetcar line.

• Two 4-pound rainbow trout caught using live minnows as bait.

• A 5-pound rainbow trout caught just below the Monroe Street Bridge by Mrs. Laura Harding.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1942: During World War II, the First Battle of El Alamein in Egypt ended in a draw as Allied forces stalled the progress of Axis invaders. (The Allies went on to win a clear victory over the Axis in the Second Battle of El Alamein later that year.)