Sept. 13, 1976: Rochester Mayor John Shaw says he will pay a parking ticket given to Gov. Mel Thomson after a local businessman complained the governor's limousine was illegally parked. Cost of the ticket: 50 cents.
Sept. 13, 1913: Harry K. Thaw, a wealthy, prominent New Yorker who murdered one of the country's foremost architects, Stanford White, arrives in Concord. Thaw was convicted, escaped from prison and was recaptured in Canada. He was brought back across the border and is being held under house arrest at the Eagle Hotel on Main Street. His case will be tangled up in court until December 1914. In the meantime, he will pass the summer of 1914 at a resort in Gorham.
Sept. 13, 2002: On the last day of the two-week filing period for the Concord school board, a mini-flood of filings produces seven newcomers and two incumbents who will vie for four seats on the board.
September 14, 1972: On Main Street in Concord, Edward Nixon, the president's younger brother, opens the state headquarters of the Committee for the Re-election of the President. The Monitor's reporter notices only a vague resemblance between the taller, thinner Edward and his famous brother.
“Only the nose,” Edward Nixon agrees.
Sept. 14, 2003: At his first New Hampshire town meeting in Manchester, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman calls the U.S. war on terrorism a “War for the hearts and minds of the Islamic world,” saying it is more than just a quest to capture Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
“This is the time for a Marshall Plan for the Muslim world,” says Lieberman, one of nine Democrats running for president. “With strength we'll achieve the security we want for our children and our grandchildren.”
Sept. 14, 1909: The New Hampshire State Sanatorium on the side of Mount Moosilauke admits its first tuberculosis patient – hopeful of benefiting from the mountain air, as are the thousands of patients who will follow. Known as the Glencliff Sanatorium, the state-run facility will serve its last patient in 1970. It is now the Glencliff Home for the Elderly.
Sept. 15, 2003: The Concord City Council approves adding several traffic-calming devices to Broadway, in the area near Rollins Park. Those devices include medians, a traffic island and curb protrusions – also known as bump-outs – that councilors hope will force drivers to slow down.
Sept. 15, 1860: Concord celebrates the opening of Auburn Street. Several hundred residents join in a carriage procession, led by the Concord Cornet Band, from the Eagle hotel, up Centre Street to Auburn. Two large flags suspended across the new street draw hearty salutes. The march continues to Little Pond Road. One speaker says the new road suggests indications of our progress in civilization.
Sept. 15, 1983: WJYY radio in Concord takes to the airwaves for the first time. Politicians express delight at the new media outlet.
“The more the better,” says Democrat Chris Spirou. “Someone might turn the dial and hear Chris Spirou talking!”
Sept. 16, 1973: Three Roman Catholic laymen announce plans to open a new liberal arts institution, Magdalen College, for 300 students, saying American universities have lost their intellectual and moral vigor. Years later, the college will move to Warner.
Sept. 16, 1863: Samuel A. Duncan, Plainfield native, Dartmouth graduate and erstwhile major of the 14th New Hampshire infantry regiment, accepts command as colonel of the Fourth U.S. Infantry Regiment, Colored. The regiment is organizing in Baltimore, a city with Southern sympathies. A large crowd of disapproving citizens will turn out to watch the regiment's first march through the streets, but the parade will pass without violence.
Sept. 16, 1845: Benjamin O. Bartlett, 57, of Pembroke dies.
“He has left his surviving friends the rich consolation of believing that their loss is his gain,” the New Hampshire Courier reports in his obituary.
Sept. 17, 2002: The curtain opens on the U.S. Senate race with both Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. John Sununu taking their respective stages with swords drawn.
“John Sununu thinks that being pro-business means giving the biggest corporations with the biggest political lobbies the biggest break – even if that costs New Hampshire businesses and workers,” Shaheen tells business leaders during a morning event in Manchester.
Sununu replies at a midday press conference in Concord that, on the contrary, it was Shaheen who had failed the state's business community.
Sept. 17, 1967: The Mount Washington Cog Railway goes out of control and plunges into a gorge, killing eight passengers and injuring 74 others. A Public Utilities Commission investigation will decide that the accident occurred because the crew failed to notice an open switch.
“The primary cause of the accident was human error,” the commission reports.
The last previous death on the Cog Railway occurred in 1929.
Sept. 18, 1886: Three decades after the first “Shaker socks” were produced, large mill production has spoiled their reputation, according to Wade's Fibre & Fabric, a trade journal.
“Anyone who was acquainted with the original production could hardly be brought to believe that the average stocking bearing the Shaker label, ever came from a Shaker community,” Wade's reports.
Commercial competition has “brought them from a high standard to the very lowest in the market.”
Sept. 18, 1987: In Concord, Elizabeth Dole defends her decision to quit her job as U.S. transportation secretary to help her husband, U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, run for president.
“This is my choice,” she says. “I'm not going to be just out there standing by Bob's side and smiling. We're talking about something with serious implications. We're talking about the leader of the free world.”
Sept. 19, 1989: After nearly two years of shoulder problems, St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Bob Tewksbury wins his first major league game since 1987. It is also his first major league shutout, a 5-0 four-hitter over the Montreal Expos.
Sept. 19, 2001: Concord Planning Board approves the renovation of the Riverbend Community Mental Health's building on North State Street. The building is the former home of the Concord Monitor and was donated to the agency in 1999. The project will involve tearing down a 1969 addition that housed the newspaper's printing press.
Sept. 17, 1847: With 85 recruits for the 9th Regiment, Lieutenant Charles F. Low, son of Concord's renowned General Joseph Low, sails for Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the seat of war.
