100 years ago in Spokane: Roadhouses were generating concern for their tendency ‘to corrupt public morals’

The West Spokane township passed a new ordinance aimed squarely at two rowdy roadhouses, the Blue Bird Cottage and the Lion Tavern.

The new ordinance required roadhouses to close their doors at midnight. This would “prevent breaches of the peace, and carousing carried on after midnight, tending to corrupt public morals.”

The township’s constable said the recent trouble had come not from local people, but from those coming out from the city around midnight.

The former West Spokane township encompassed the mostly rural area west of the city limits, between Government Way and Hayford Road, approximately.

From the school beat: Several local ministers charged that “certain science teachers in local high schools had attacked the Bible.”

They said that “Darwinism is being advocated by certain teachers to such an extent that Bible statements are ridiculed.”

The ministers requested a conference with the Spokane school superintendent about the issue.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1945: During World War II, 724 people were killed when a Japanese dive bomber attacked the carrier USS Franklin off Japan (the ship was saved). Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands in his so-called “Nero Decree,” which was largely disregarded.

1995: After a 21-month hiatus, Michael Jordan returned to professional basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls.