May 20, 1994: A two-alarm fire in the cellar of The Suitcase shop on North Main Street burns a stockroom with inventory and smokes up neighboring stores, particularly Vanderbilt’s Delicatessen. “The smoke was thick enough inside that building that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,” says Battalion Chief Chris Pope.
May 20, 1983: A crowd of women gather at a public hearing in Concord to describe the sorrows of alimony, child support and high legal fees as the state contemplates reforms to porce laws. “We have to start with the girls and tell them this business about living happily ever after – that is a fantasy. It’s a fairy tale. They must face the world knowing they’re responsible for their own support,” says Susan Caldwell, head of the state Commission on the Status of Women.
May 21, 2002: Police officers and rescue workers swarmed the State House, shutting down a section of North Main Street and its side streets so bomb experts could examine what a mask-wearing man had left in a FedEx box, the Monitor reports. The answer, they discovered after quarantining the area for about two hours, was an 8½-by-11-inch FedEx envelope, no explosives included.
May 21, 1913: The Legislature passes Gov. Robert P. Bass’s bill to compensate inmates at the state prison for their labor. Part of the small wage will go directly to the prisoners’ dependents or, if they have none, will be set aside until their release.
May 22, 2001: Concord Litho Group, one of the world’s largest printers of greeting cards, has laid off 31 of its 231 employees, the Monitor reports. The elimination of jobs is expected to be permanent.
May 22, 1879: The Monitor editorializes against a fountain in the State House plaza: “The fountain continues to squirt water all over those who have the temerity to walk in its vicinity, as in the days of yore. Its location ought to be changed.” In 1914, it is discarded to make room for the statue of Franklin Pierce.
May 23, 2003: New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord graduates its largest-ever class, handing out 528 two-year associate’s degrees.
May 23, 1864: The Monitor is published for the first time. The city’s first daily newspaper, it is founded “to present the news . . . swearing to the words of no master.”
May 24, 2002: The Concord Police Department’s proposed budget includes $4,500 to install video surveillance equipment in Bicentennial Square, the Monitor reports. According to Police Chief Jerry Madden, business owners and residents have complained about vandalism and vulgarity there for years.
May 24, 1844: Samuel F.B. Morse, who began his career as a Concord mechanic, sends the first message over his electro-magnetic telegraph. The previous year, Congress appropriated $30,000 to test the machine on a line laid from Washington to Baltimore.
May 24, 1944: The Legislature unveils a plaque on the 100th anniversary of the first message Samuel F.B. Morse’s sent on his invention, the telegraph: “What God hath wrought.” Morse lived in Concord as a young portrait painter and married Lucretia Pickering Walker, a descendant of Concord’s first minister, Timothy Walker.
May 25, 2002: Nearly 400 students graduate from New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, marking the college’s first year as an accredited school in its 35-year history.
May 25, 1944: The Monitor’s lead photograph on page one, an illustration of the state’s severe labor shortage, shows three blind men working at the New England Briar Pipe Co. in Penacook.
May 25, 1983: Return of the Jedi debuts in Concord and 700 people turn out to watch. “My kids have been talking about this for three months,” says Lynn Ring of Northwood. “Is there any other movie?”
May 25, 1860: Having drilled diligently on the old fairgrounds near today’s Airport Road, the 5-month-old Governor’s Horse Guard makes its first public appearance. The occasion is to welcome former president Franklin Pierce and his wife home from a long vacation. The guard meets the Pierces at the train station and escorts them to the Eagle Hotel.
May 25, 1861: The First New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, marching under former congressman Mason Tappan of Bradford, marches down Concord’s Main Street en route to a train for the front. As Tappan rides past the Phenix Hotel, an observer finds him “a little anxious, not exactly glad to go, but ready to do a soldier’s duty.” The train carrying the men south comprises 18 passenger cars and 20 freight cars. The journey to Washington will take three days.
