Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Fifty new forest fires were blazing in the Clearwater and St. Joe regions of Idaho. 

A huge number of lightning strikes the night before started the fires. All of the fires were raging out of control the next morning. 

State authorities were sending in 200 to 400 men to battle the blazes. 

The blazes were spread over a 150-square-mile area. 

From the redhead file: Dr. H.S. Clemmer, Spokane movie theater entrepreneur, was organizing the “Clemmer Red-Head Club” at the Interstate Fair, open to all redheaded boys in the city.

Clemmer said he understood the plight of redheaded boys, having been badgered and beaten by other boys for his “sorrel top.”

“The redheaded boy is a peripatetic, perpetual and pathetic fuse that will start a laugh whenever and wherever and however he appear,” said Clemmer, a bit tongue-in-cheek. “… Everybody laughs at a redhead from the time he’s born until he gets a bank account.”

Each member of the Clemmer Red-Head Club was to receive a button with a registration number, good for a number of “treats” to be distributed by Clemmer at the fair and in the coming months.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1972: The Republican National Convention opened in Miami Beach.