Keyword(s): Lane Morgan
The southernmost island in Puget Sound, Anderson Island has forged its identity in the background of its better-known neighbor, McNeil. It comprises 7.75 square miles, with about 14 miles of convolute...
August Dvorak had a variety of accomplishments as an efficiency specialist in the Navy and as an education professor at the University of Washington. But the invention that bears his name, and that he...
A rowboat rental service founded in Tacoma by Thea Foss in 1889 and developed by her husband and relatives over the next hundred years became Foss Maritime, the largest tug and towing operation on the...
Paul Haffer's role in an odd Tacoma libel case -- he was convicted of libeling the long-dead George Washington (1732-1799) -- brought him national recognition at age 21. He gained further notoriety, a...
Alan L. Hart was a twentieth-century Pacific Northwest physician and novelist who more recently became best known as the first person in the United States known to have had surgical gender transition....
Robert Joffrey (1928-1988) was a dancer, choreographer, and founder of the eponymous ballet company. He is credited with bringing a distinctly American approach to dance and with reviving experimental...
KAYE 1450 AM (as of 2022 KSUH-Hankook) is a small, Puyallup-based radio station that has at times taken the national stage. From its start in 1951, it has attracted a string of owners, none from large...
As a treaty-rights activist and tribal entrepreneur, Robert Satiacum's influence and notoriety spread far beyond his Puyallup Tribe. He was first known as a local athlete and then, along with family m...
Elizabeth Shackleford, a lifelong Tacoman, was a lawyer and judge in her hometown for 60 years. She was the second female justice of the peace in Pierce County and for several years the only female la...
Smallpox struck New Tacoma, a recently platted town encompassing much of what later became downtown Tacoma, in October 1881. The outbreak sickened an official count of 80 people and killed 14 by the t...
The Stickney Indian School ran in northern Whatcom County from 1892 until 1914. Over that period it had a variety of locations and of names: Stickney Indian Boarding School, the Stickney Industrial Bo...
Thomas Wiedemann (1879-1962) gained brief notoriety as the "Klondike Kid," after heading to the Yukon on the ill-fated and ineptly crewed steamship Eliza Anderson in 1897. He grew up in Seat...
On June 6, 1870, Charlotte Emily Olney French (1828-1897), after a debate with the election judges, casts her vote in a Washington territorial election, the first woman to do so. Six more women at her...
On Friday, January 14, 1882, Dr. Francis B. H. Wing (1838-1882) walks to his New Tacoma office and sleeping quarters after a late-night visit with his friend R. F. Radebaugh (1846-1927) of the Tacoma ...
On December 14, 1891, the Broadway School in Everett opens its doors to its first 26 students. It is a new building in a city that is not yet formally incorporated, but growing fast, and Emma Sarepta ...
On February 12, 1892, Lydia Hill Daggett (1823-1901) and a Miss Thomas arrive at Lynden in Whatcom County to begin operations at the Stickney Home, a boarding school for Native children. A member of t...
On February 20, 1915, at 10 a.m. on a chilly Saturday, a "hydroaeroplane" taxies along Tacoma's Middle Waterway. It carries its builder and pilot, Gustav Stromer; an actress named Jane O'Roark; and a ...
On December 29, 1916, the Washington State Supreme Court affirms the misdemeanor conviction of Paul Haffer (1894-1949) for criminal libel. The victim of his offense is George Washington (1732-1799), d...
On April 22, 1936, at 11 a.m., about 500 students walk out of class at Lincoln High School in Tacoma. Chanting slogans, they march through the 38th Street business district and down Tacoma Avenue to c...
Dr. Alan L. Hart's (1892-1960) third novel, In the Lives of Men, is published on May 1, 1937. Like his two previous titles, Dr. Mallory (1935) and The Undaunted (1936), it portrays the life and career...
On June 21, 1940, Velma Crismon (b. circa 1924), a student at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, types 113 words per minute at the International Typewriting Contest in Chicago, setting a new world record ...
On September 1, 1964, Suzanne Satiacum (b. 1942) is booked for assault and additional charges after a scuffle that begins at the Tacoma County-City Building. It is her first known arrest i...
On August 8, 1967, the Robert Joffrey City Ballet performs four works at Pacific Lutheran University's Eastvold Chapel to a sold-out crowd. The company, based in New York City, has come to PLU for its...
On November 9, 1973, Jim Nicholls signs off the air with his last broadcast on KAYE radio in Puyallup. The controversial station has been fighting termination of its broadcasting license since 1969. I...
On August 21, 1981, Elizabeth Shackleford (1895-1989) closes her law practice for the final time, 59 years after passing the bar. She is 86. Shackleford has spent her entire career in Tacoma, as a law...
On August 10, 2017, two dozen regional actors and musicians premiere The Other Country, a play about Thea Foss (1857-1927), at the Foss Waterway Seaport in Tacoma. The production, opening in the 90th ...