Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

Delbert Wiley, Spokane “birdman,” made “two beautiful flights” in a biplane over the east end of Spokane.

Wiley flew in a plane manufactured by R.C. McClennan at the McClennan aviation camp near Otis Orchards.

Wiley “made some pretty turns,” witnessed by thousands of Spokane baseball fans at the nearby Recreation Park and by the Spokane polo team, which was practicing nearby.

One of Wiley’s flights “covered practically the entire valley from Trent to the city.” 

From the vice beat: Police raided a hotel on Second Avenue and arrested five men and four women for “vagrancy.” 

The women were suspected of being members of the oldest profession, although when they were booked, they all provided alternate occupations, including dressmaker, domestic and clerk.

Nina Johnson, 24, gave her profession as “cracker packer,” which sounds quite startling until you remember that Spokane had a number of cracker factories at the time. 

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1950: North Korean forces captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

1964: Civil rights activist Malcolm X declared, “We want equality by any means necessary” during the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York.