June 28, 1904: The rotary phone is putting Los Angeles switchboard operators out of work!

“He entered the place determined to find solace in sleep. He began to collide with strange articles of furniture. He stumbled over beds, chairs and bric-a-brac, fell downstairs and did other gymnastic stunts until W.P. Henly, the owner, was aroused,” The Times says.  Neighbors helped hold Lyons prisoner while waiting an hour for the police to arrive but became so entranced by the passing of Halley’s Comet that they more or less forgot about him and when the case came to trial, his sentence was suspended.

On the jump, Moses Staple and Clarence Moore are each fined $15 for cheating brickyard workers with loaded dice.