This day in history: A presidential tide was shifting for Spokane, and an unlikely suspect was named in a police scuffle

From 1976: Spokane County Republicans made it clear: They were backing Ronald Reagan for president, not the current Republican president, Gerald Ford.

Supporters of Reagan won “all but 12 of Spokane County’s 99 state Republican convention delegates.” This “should give Reagan all three of the national Republican convention delegates from the 5th Congressional District.”

This stunning victory came despite the fact that Ford made a personal phone call to the county convention in an attempt to rally supporters.

Reagan’s strong showing in the county did not translate to a national win. Ford went on to win the Republican nomination in 1976, but Reagan would win it all in 1980.

From 1926: The Spokesman-Review’s Seattle Bureau reported that Miss Amy Albright, Gov. Roland Hartley’s private secretary, got into a ruckus with a “brute cop.”

“She smashed me in the mouth with her beaded handbag,” complained a Seattle cop.

An unabashed Albright said all of the roughness was on the part of Patrolman Sheehan. She was on the sidewalk when she saw Sheehan seize a young bicycle messenger boy, drag him to the sidewalk and begin to kick him.

She “protested vigorously and admits having called Sheehan a brute.”

Sheehan threatened to throw her in jail for interfering with an officer. She dared him to carry out his threat, and “all witnesses agree there was something of a tussle,” although there were differences of opinion over whether she smacked him with her handbag.

When someone told Sheehan he was wrestling with the governor’s secretary, he abandoned his would-be prisoner and beat a hasty retreat.