Feb. 15, 1943: As a war measure, Concord's Mayor Charles McKee recommends that stoplights be eliminated at city intersections. Posting stop signs in their places will conserve gasoline, he says.
Feb. 16, 1942: Eighty centers are set up around the state to register men aged 20 and 36-44 for the draft. Gov. Robert O. Blood's son, Robert Jr., a junior at Dartmouth, has already registered, as has Styles Bridges Jr., son of the senator.
Feb. 16, 1943: The temperature falls to 37 below zero at 8:30 a.m., the coldest temperature ever measured in Concord. The record had been 35 below, set Jan. 8, 1878.
Feb. 17, 1874: Franklin B. Evans, killer of Josianna Lovering of Northwood, is hanged at the state prison. On his last night, Evans sold his body for $50 to a Concord doctor who planned to bring it to the Dartmouth College medical department. Evans was curious to learn if his bones would be wired together. The idea amused him. Over three years later, in a prank, students will steal his skeleton from a lecture hall and hang it on the college grounds.
Feb. 17, 1942: St. Paul's School holds a blackout drill. A steam whistle blast announces the onset of 10 minutes of darkness for the school's 750 students.
Feb. 17, 1900: Deep in debt, the 96-year-old Abbot & Downing coach and wagon company is taken over by creditors. Employment has dropped from 300 to 200. The families of Lewis Downing and Stephen Abbot will no longer be involved in running the company after 1901, and the new bosses will struggle to keep the enterprise afloat.
Feb. 18, 1827: The Rev. Asa McFarland, Concord's Congregationalist minister for 30 years, dies at the age of 58. Two portraits of McFarland exist, including one by Samuel F.B. Morse, a resident of Concord in the early 19th century.
Feb. 18, 1842 – The radical and conservative factions of the Democratic Party brawl in Concord's town hall over control of a party caucus. An observer, Henry McFarland, writes that “seats and desks were smashed, wigs flew in the dusty air, and bloody noses were seen on most respectable faces. There was a great uproar and a clatter of flying feet, combatants chasing their foes as far down as Centre Street.”
Feb. 20, 1772: Philip Carrigain is born in Concord. His father is a local physician. Philip will graduate from Dartmouth, practice law in Concord and become New Hampshire's secretary of state. Chosen in part for his distinguished handwriting, in 1816 he will produce the first map of the state to show town boundaries.
Feb. 20, 1942: All New Hampshire people with excess sugar are asked to return it to their grocers, who are expected to pay them the full retail price for it.
Feb. 20, 1973: New Hampshire officials approve the state's first “instant sweepstakes,” in which players will buy a 50-cent lottery ticket, remove a seal and know instantly if they have won. The game is aimed at tourists. Top prize will be $100.
