Jan. 17, 1726: Massachusetts grants permission to settle the area that will become Concord. A supervising committee screens would-be settlers. It wants just 100 families.
Jan. 17, 1948: Concord's new mayor, Charles McKee, says he's not giving up on plans for a new man-made lake on the Turkey River, despite voter opposition. “As I understand it, there was a lake there once, but someone pulled out the plug and it drained away. I am told it would be a comparatively simple matter to put the plug back in.”
Jan. 17, 2001: New Hampshire Public Radio announces plans to scrap its classical and jazz programming in favor of news and arts-oriented features. The change in format will prompt a lot of angry letters to the editor, but NHPR will go on to enjoy a record fund-raising campaign.
Jan. 18, 1982: New Hampshire is rattled by the worst earthquake in 42 years. In Concord, a city council meeting has just gotten under way. As Mayor David Coeyman gavels the meeting to order, the windows begin shaking and papers begin shuffling. “I will always remember this,” Coeyman says.
Jan.19, 1942: Sylvia Esty, an 8-year-old Jehovah's Witness, puts her hand over her heart but refuses to say the words of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Garrison School in West Concord. She says God has forbidden her to pledge allegiance to flag and country. Concord's school board says it may have to expel her.
Jan. 19, 1968: Speaking to students at St. Paul's School, Arthur Schlesinger, onetime special adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, opposes U.S. policy in Vietnam. He says it is based on a misguided analysis of post-World War II political realities.
Jan. 20, 1798: Concord's first accidental fire is recorded at 10 p.m. in David George's hat shop on North Main Street. “Let this, fellow citizens, excite everyone to vigilance,” writes the Concord Mirrour. “Query – would it not be a good plan for every man to keep a good ladder and one or two proper fire buckets always ready?”
Jan. 20, 1823: Rebecca Long, 36, dies in Concord. The cause: poisoning by white lead, accidentally mixed in the sugar used by the family.
Jan. 20, 1994: A three-alarm fire damages the Boutwell & Hussey-Wiren Funeral Home on North Main Street, a building that dates to the late 19th century. “I'd like to send a message out that we do plan to go on,” says Ronald Bourque, whose family has owned the business for 20 years.
Jan. 21, 1988: In former mayor Martin Gross's living room in Concord, Democratic presidential contender Al Gore tells a crowd that in 1960, with the election of John F. Kennedy, the nation replaced the oldest president with the youngest. “By sheer coincidence, we have the opportunity to do that again,” Gore says. He is 39 years old and seeking to succeed Ronald Reagan.
Jan. 21, 1990: The new Concord Monitor building is dedicated off Sewalls Falls Road. In April, the staff will move into the building. The paper and predecessors to which it can trace its roots have been published in downtown Concord since 1808.
Jan. 22, 1811: A cow belonging to Abner Farnum Jr. of Concord gives birth to a two-headed calf.
Jan. 22, 2001: The Concord School Board names Chris Rath the superintendent of the city's schools. A former principal at Rundlett Junior High School and Concord High School, Rath has held the post of interim superintendent for several months.
Jan. 23, 1924: Carl Sandburg appears at the Concord City Auditorium. He reads his poems, plays his guitar and sings ballads and songs. According to the Monitor, Sandburg calls modern poetry “free” since it is “not marked off into measures and cadences.”
Jan. 23, 1938: The Sacred Heart Hockey Club, composed mostly of young Concord men of French Canadian descent, plays Butterfield of Quebec at the White Park rink. A crowd of 1,167 pays the 15-cent price of admission.
Jan. 23, 2000: Concord's Tara Mounsey is named one of two defensemen on the Hockey News All-World Team of the 1990s. Mounsey's Olympic teammate Cammi Granato is the other American in the starting six; they are joined by three Canadians and a Finn.
