June 14, 1831: Benjamin Brown French, a rising politico from Chester, goes to a party in Concord with future U.S. senator Charles G. Atherton and future president Franklin Pierce. His companions, both in their 20s, are ” 'smashed' by a pair of bright eyes, & a beautiful face,” but French “would as soon think of falling in love with an elegant piece of statuary.” He tells his diary: “Give me eyes that can pierce the very soul, & a countenance that bespeaks a mind within.”
June 14, 1944: Speaking on the causes of juvenile delinquency, Dr. Anna Philbrook, a psychiatrist at the state hospital, says: “Children are growing up in homes where they have no facilities for play, where parents are so deeply concerned with earning enough money to buy the food needed by the family that they cannot spare the time to guide their children to healthful recreation.”
June 15, 1983: The Legislature fails to override Gov. John Sununu's veto of a bill establishing Earth Care Week in honor of the late governor Hugh Gallen. Sununu objects to the section of the bill stating concern for protecting New Hampshire and the planet from the destruction of nuclear war.
June 15, 1776: Three men, including Concord's Timothy Walker Jr., write a resolution instructing Dr. Josiah Bartlett and William Whipple, New Hampshire's delegates in Philadelphia, to join “in declaring the 13 united colonies a free and independent state.” New Hampshire will support such a declaration “with our lives and fortunes,” it says.
June 15, 1799: The Concord Musical Society is incorporated “to encourage and promote the practice of sacred musick in Concord.”
June 16, 1842: The Democratic platform, as reported in Concord's New Hampshire Patriot, rails against Whig support for broadening the rights granted to corporations. Only “an unwarranted construction of the Constitution” sanctions corporate privileges, the platform says. “If the policy of creating corporations be continued much longer, our country will (have) all the outward forms of a free Government, but will in fact be governed by an oligarchy of corporations.”
June 16, 1864: Still short of the state's recruiting quota for the Union Army, Gov. Joseph Gilmore announces a state bonus of $400 for any man who will sign up for the First New Hampshire Cavalry Regiment.
June 17, 1863: With Union armies still faltering at the front, 30,000 people gather in Concord for the formation of the Public Loyal Union League of the state. Bands, speakers and marches are the order of the day.
June 17, 1840: On Concord's Rumford Square, a 5-acre field of trees between School and Center streets below Rumford Street, a speech by the Whig Sen. Daniel Webster draws a rousing crowd. The speech follows a “Log Cabin Procession” for Gen. William Henry Harrison.
June 18, 1812: Congress declares war on Great Britain. Siding with the Federalist opposition, New Hampshireman Daniel Webster calls the declaration of war “premature and inexpedient” and accuses the Republicans of having entered an alliance against England with the “papists, the infidels (and the) atheists” of France.
June 18, 1853: A group of Concord citizens meets and raises money for sprinkler to keep the dust down on Main Street.
June 18, 1965: Lawmakers consider legislation to allow grocery and drug stores to sell light wines. They estimate an extra $700,000 in state revenue. (The legislation will eventually pass.)
June 19, 1807: Parliamentary maneuvering in the Legislature results in Concord being named the capital, ending several years of roving state government.
June 19, 1856: One hundred booms of the cannon in Concord celebrate the nomination of John Charles Fremont, the first Republican candidate for president. The cheer goes up: “Free Soil, Free Men and Fremont.”
June 20, 1841: More than 1,000 people gather at Old North Church to hear a lecture by John. H.W. Hawkins, a self-proclaimed “reformed inebriate” now a silver-tongued missionary for temperance.
