Oct. 29, 2003: A legislative committee has concluded that severe management problems at the North State Street prison in Concord allowed the June 4 escape to happen. In a letter given to Gov. Craig Benson, the committee’s chairman, Rev. Karl Gilbert, names Warden Jane Coplan as the problem. The committee argues that Coplan knowingly distanced herself from critical decision-making aspects of the institution.
Oct. 29, 1963: A crowd of 600 to 1,000 – mostly college students and other young people – break through a police cordon at Concord Airport to greet Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. “I don’t know when I’ll be back up here again,” says Goldwater, “but it won’t be long.”
Oct. 29, 1795: Concord Bridge, the town’s first span across the Merrimack, opens with a party and parade. It is near the site of today’s Manchester Street bridge. A second toll bridge will be built to East Concord in 1796.
Oct. 29, 1792: The first issue of The Mirror is published in Concord. The cost: 5 shillings per year. The publishers requests 1 shilling cash and the rest in “country produce.”
Oct. 29, 1870: A committee recommends to the residents of Concord that Long Pond become the municipal water supply. After more than two years of contentious debate, the first water will flow from the pond into the pipes.
Oct. 29, 1989: Meat Loaf, whose 10-year-old Bat out of Hell album has sold 17 million copies, plays one of the last big shows at the deteriorating Capitol Theatre on South Main Street. The crowd, not a full house, stands and sings the choruses with him.
Oct. 31, 1783: New Hampshire’s constitution is written. It includes, among other provisions, a prohibition on Dartmouth faculty in the Legislature.
Oct. 31, 1944: Elizabeth Hager is born. In the 1980s, Hager will become the city’s first female mayor. She will serve many years as a city councilor and state representative and run unsuccessfully for governor in 1992.
Nov. 1, 2002: If elected, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the state’s first female governor, would become its first female U.S. senator as well, the Monitor reports. And although she doesn’t mention that fact – even in the final round-the-clock push to turn out every possible voter – she believes it matters. “Whether you’re talking about domestic violence issues or issues of credit for women . . . it’s women who’ve lead the charge, so it is important because women are advocates for issues that affect families,” she said.
Nov. 1, 1819: A new animal law takes effect in Concord: “whereas the inhabitants of Concord and travelers with teams and loaded sleighs are frequently annoyed by cows and sheep running at large, therefore hereafter no cow or sheep shall be permitted to run at-large in the Main street . . . or within half a mile to the west of Main Street.”
Nov. 1, 1845: Thomas Potter of Concord falls 34 feet from a chestnut tree without fracturing a limb. Twenty-four years earlier, he fell the same distance from the same tree.
Nov. 1, 1842: The New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane opens in Concord. One of the first patients: a man from Tuftonboro who prays and preaches on the subject of the Second Coming for four hours each morning and remains quiet the rest of the day.
Nov. 1, 1791: A New Hampshire law against “profane cursing and swearing” takes effect. Fines: 8 shillings for first offense, 16 for second convictions, 24 for subsequent penalties. If the convict can’t pay: public whippings of not more than 10 lashes.
Nov. 2, 1920: Albert O. Brown is elected governor. He gets the largest number of votes in state history (93,273) because it is the first general election in which women voters participate.
Nov. 2, 1986: Vermonter Barry Stem makes public his plan to develop a world-class golf course, 246 single-family homes and 164 duplex condominiums on 840 acres of Concord’s Broken Ground. It won’t happen.
Nov. 4, 2002: Three dozen South Enders turn out to meet with city councilors about a few neighborhood topics: the Northwest Bypass, the Richmond Co. shopping center and the Interstate 93 expansion.
