100 years ago in Spokane: School district announces plan to vaccinate students for whooping cough

From our archives, 100 years ago

The medical director of Spokane public schools announced plans to vaccinate Spokane children against whooping cough.

Dr. J.E. Drake had just returned from Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he took a postgraduate course in preventive medicine. He discovered that New York doctors were “using the vaccine with success.” He had already arranged for a supply to be sent to Spokane and in the fall planned to inoculate children who were exposed to the deadly disease.

Dr. Drake also was on hand to observe the treatment of the infantile paralysis (polio) outbreak in New York. He noted that the disease is easily diagnosed, but once paralysis sets in, “there is small hope of a cure.”

From the mining beat: A large delegation of Spokane mining and business men were planning a trip to Kellogg to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the “new $6 million smelter of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine.”

This new smelter would employ 1,000 additional men in Kellogg. Plans for the groundbreaking ceremony included a “beef barbecue, field events, ball games and a gun club shoot.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1948: Baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53. … 1976: The ABBA single “Dancing Queen” was released in Sweden.