100 years ago: 19th Amendment ratified, giving women right to vote nationwide

Millions of women nationwide won the right to vote when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment.

This merited a front-page story in The Spokesman-Review, but it was largely symbolic for the women of Washington state.

They had won the right to vote in 1910.

It would be more accurate to say that they regained the right to vote in 1910, because they had initially won it in 1883, but it was rescinded in 1888.

Now, under this federal constitutional amendment, it could not be rescinded again.

From the Prohibition beat: “Wet,” in the parlance of the temperance movement, meant pro-liquor.

Six Spokane men landed in jail for being “wet,” in two senses of the word.

These six were drinking moonshine on the banks of the Spokane River, when one of them somehow lost his balance and fell into the river. The other five jumped in to rescue him, but that did not go well. They discovered they couldn’t pull themselves out of the water.

Police came to the rescue and to found six men floating around in the water, along with their hats and coats.

They also found several empty bottles of moonshine. All six were hauled in on charges of drunkenness.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1848: The New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California.