This day in history: Chronicle begins running Doonesbury. Spokane inmate sawed his way through Sandpoint jail

From 1976: The Spokane Daily Chronicle announced the launch of two new comic strips: B.C. and Doonesbury.

B.C. was a traditional strip in which Stone Age characters engaged in humorous antics.

Doonesbury, however, was anything but traditional. It was unapologetically political, featuring modern characters including hippie Zonker, feminist Joanie Caucus and B.D., an ex-jock who still wore his football helmet everywhere.

The Chronicle called it “sometimes wry, sometimes caustic, always entertaining.”

The Chronicle was a bit late coming to the Doonesbury bandwagon. It had debuted in 1970 and had already won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for creator Garry Trudeau.

In other news, the small town of Malden, south of Spokane, had no trouble selecting the town’s Junior Miss, Tami Van Dyke,

She was the only girl in town who “was interested,” said the Chronicle.

From 1926: John Graffenberger of Spokane, suspected of attempted murder, escaped from the county jail in Sandpoint after he “pried a steel plate off the ceiling and cut the roof of the jail open with a saw.”

Graffenberger was accused of beating John Nygard over the head with a revolver during an argument while the two were on a boat on Priest Lake. Police said he “landed his victim on a deserted spot on the shore with the intention of leaving him there to die.”

Nygard was paralyzed but did not die. He was able to tell police his story.

Graffenberger had been held in jail since then, awaiting news of whether Nygard would succumb or recover.

Graffenberger was still at large. There was no explanation of how he obtained a saw.