This day in history: Ferris High School senior was about to make military history

From 1976: Ferris High School senior Kathryn A. Wildey was preparing to enter West Point, as part of the first female cohort in the academy’s history.

She was fully aware that she was in for a challenge. She had learned from a friend, who was already a cadet, that some “want to run us out” and others “think it’s great.”

“I really don’t know what the military is like in any way,” she admitted.

But she was ready for the challenge as she prepared to report to basic training in July.

“I think the first women that go there are going to have to set the precedent,” she said. “I intend to set it as high as I can.”

From 1926: Good news arrived for the much-touted – and now suspended – Pasco-Elko air mail route.

Four of the new Wright “whirlwind motors” had just arrived for installation in the “Swallow” mail planes.

This air mail route promised much faster mail service for Spokane and the Inland Northwest, but it was suspended after only two days after a plane had to make an emergency landing in Oregon. The planes needed new, more reliable motors in order to safely fly the route.

Resumption of the service was still weeks or months away.

“Future progress depends on arrival of (other) parts, for which the earliest possible delivery has been promised,” said a spokesman.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1918: German World War I fighter ace Baron Manfred von Richthofen, aka “The Red Baron,” is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur Somme, France. Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown is credited with the kill.