Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

About 70 scientists from America and Europe planned to spend an entire day touring one of the Inland Northwest’s natural wonders, the Grand Coulee.

The American Geographical Society sponsored the tour. They planned to start the tour in Spokane and drive in dozens of autos to “the huge, rock-ribbed coulee, the walls of which extend sheer up from 800 to 1,000 feet.”

After that, they planned to explore the Columbia River, Steamboat Rock and the Yakima Valley. The tour’s organizer was Professor William Morris Davis from Harvard, who “insisted upon including” the Grand Coulee in the tour.

From the accident beat: A Hope, Idaho, man was in his woodshed when he heard a violent crackling and hissing from the light fixture in his woodshed. He reached up to the light and “a flash of electricity enveloped his hand, striking him on the chest and passing through the body, burning several toes on his foot.”

The cause was a short circuit caused when a neighbor’s house caught fire. 

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1565: A Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.