Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Manito Park Zoo was acquiring several new animals: two buffaloes, a Japanese deer, a pair of ostriches and two pairs of blue peacocks.

The buffaloes – a bull and a cow – were donated by the zoo in Portland. So was the Japanese deer.

The ostriches were purchased after parks head Aubrey L. White raised money by subscription from local donors. The peacocks were bought by a rancher.

From the football beat: Spokane’s school board relented and agreed to allow Spokane’s two high schools to play two games each against teams outside of Spokane. 

The board had banned outside football games the year before after there had been some altercations and disciplinary issues. Board members said they were mainly pleased with the ban, because it “relieved the schools from the ticket selling and promoting that in former years has operated to the detriment of the serious work of the schools.”

However, they discovered that boys weren’t willing to turn out for the teams anymore. So the board approved a partial lift of the ban. They would allow two away games, on the condition that the games were within 200 miles of Spokane.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1965: Lawrence Wallace Bradford Jr., age 16, was appointed by New York Republican Jacob Javits to be the first black page of the U.S. Senate.

1970: Apollo 13, four-fifths of the way to the moon, was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst. (The astronauts managed to return safely.)