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. Senator 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, 2000: A deal has been struck to keep Concord's Sunnycrest Farms a working apple orchard, the Monitor reports. A grassroots coalition led by the orchard manager has worked out an agreement with the owner, provided the group can raise about $1 million.
Sept. 19, 2001: The 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. 19, 2002: The sharpened pencils come out in the gubernatorial race, as Democratic state Sen. Mark Fernald assails Republican rival Craig Benson's education funding plan as “fuzzy math gone wild.” Benson would face an $85 million shortfall in his first fiscal year in office, Fernald says, and that's even before considering his $70-plus million worth of proposed programs, such as sending additional aid to poor schools, curbing seniors' property taxes and eliminating donor towns.
Sept. 20, 2002: State and federal officials approve a plan that allows the Concord Municipal Airport to reconstruct a 3,200-foot runway and make other improvements while protecting the endangered Karner blue butterfly.
Sept. 21, 1838: A Mr. Lauriat displays his hot air balloon in Concord. He takes off from the State House plaza, touches down at Shaker Village in Canterbury and then off again to Northfield. He travels 16 miles in 1½ hours – the greatest recorded speed in the area.
Sept. 21, 1846: Lt. Joseph H. Potter of Concord, a West Point classmate of Ulysses S. Grant, is wounded while storming a battery with his regiment at the battle of Monterey. He writes: “I was shot through the leg about two inches below the knee – the ball passing between the two bones of the leg and out the opposite side.”
Sept. 21, 1938: A giant hurricane roars through Concord. One thousand electric poles are downed and Concord Electric's Sewalls Falls station is flooded. No power can be generated. Eighty percent of the trees in parks, cemeteries and streets are destroyed in what one account describes as “six shrieking hours of wind.”
Sept. 21, 1983: Officials announce that Rumford Press will close at the end of the year, putting 400 Concord employees out of work. “It's a phenomenal shock to them,” says Charlie Stott of the AFL-CIO. Mayor David Coeyman describes the impact on the city: “In a community interested in revitalization, this is not necessarily the kind of opponent we seek. Concord has not , since the railroad left, had to deal with a major employer closing its doors.”
Sept. 21, 2003: Merrimack Valley High School holds its homecoming football game against Goffstown, the first football game to be played on one of three new fields at the high school. The celebration includes 1,500 hot dogs, a banner-bearing airplane and a Black Hawk helicopter. Merrimack Valley loses to Goffstown, 31-7.
Sept. 22, 1991: Refurbished and restored through a community effort, the City Auditorium re-opens with a gala variety show.
Sept. 22, 2001: The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests announces the most ambitious statewide conservation project in a century. The plan would protect an additional 1 million acres from development by 2025, nearly doubling the amount of space already set aside in New Hampshire.
Sept. 24, 1816: A few months after the Legislature confirms Concord as the state capital, the cornerstone of the State House is laid. To now, New Hampshire is the only state in the union without a capitol.
Sept. 24, 1957: In a referendum, Concord voters decide to abandon manager-council government for a strong elected mayor. The margin is so thin – nine votes – that opponents demand a recount. The margin will shrink to five votes – 2,979 to 2,974 – but the result stands. To a call for further investigation of the vote, Mayor Herbert Rainie responds: “The people of Concord have spoken and we must accept their decision.” Almost exactly 10 years later, the city will impeach the mayor and revert to manager-council government.
