June 17, 2000: The Class of 2000 says thank you to Concord High School Assistant Principal Michael Garrett, who has announced his retirement after 40 years at the school. In his honor, a path of granite steps between the school bus circle and the main entrance is christened “Garrett Way.”
June 17, 1970: Attorney General Warren Rudman tells the Concord Rotary Club that he was glad the Chicago Three – David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman – were allowed to speak at UNH. “You cannot repress free speech,” he says. “You cannot repress advocacy of things you don’t agree with.”
June 17, 1863: With Union armies still faltering at the front, 30,000 people gather in Concord for the formation of the Public Loyal Union League of the state. Bands, speakers and marches are the order of the day.
June 17, 1840: On Concord’s Rumford Square, a five-acre field of trees between School and Center streets below Rumford Street, a speech by the Whig Sen. Daniel Webster draws a rousing crowd. The speech follows a “Log Cabin Procession” for Gen. William Henry Harrison.
June 17, 1975: Gov. Mel Thomson vetoes legislation guaranteeing equal opportunity in school sports for boys and girls. His fear: costly litigation over “problems that exist more in the minds of social architects than on the playgrounds.”
June 18, 2001: The Concord City Council puts off a proposal to raise the annual tax credit for veterans. The city’s veterans are entitled to a $50 tax exemption; the proposal would have doubled the amount.
June 18, 1853: A group of Concord citizens meets and raises money for a street sprinkler to keep the dust down on Main Street.
June 19, 2003: Speaking at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, Sen. John Kerry offers his solution for navigating the country out of the economic doldrums, a situation he calls “deeply disturbing” and “bleaker than we would like it to be.”
June 19, 2002: After 66 years, Washington Street School in Penacook closes. In the fall, students will attend Penacook Elementary School, a brand-new facility one mile away.
June 19, 2000: Residents of Hull, Quebec, pedal through downtown Concord on a 33-passenger bicycle, part of a trek the Canadian town has organized to celebrate its bicentennial.
June 19, 1807: Parliamentary maneuvering in the Legislature results in Concord being named the capital, ending several years of roving state government.
June 19, 1856: One hundred booms of the cannon in Concord celebrate the nomination of John Charles Fremont, the first Republican candidate for president. The cheer goes up: “Free Soil, Free Men and Fremont.”
June 21, 2003: A robust fire that spits flames out of a Perley Street apartment house leaves eight people homeless. Nobody is injured.
June 21, 2001: One of two men accused of fatally beating a 91-year-old Penacook woman confesses in court as part of a deal for a reduced prison sentence. In nine months, prosecutors will ask the court to dissolve the plea deal, saying they now want to try the man who confessed and accept a lesser plea from the second man, who had been headed for trial.
June 21, 1861: In New Jersey, Lt. Charles W. Walker of the Goodwin Rifles, a revered company of the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, falls from a lurching platform car of the train carrying the regiment to Washington. His injuries prove fatal. His body will be brought back to Concord for burial.
June 21, 1788: At a meeting house near the former Walker School, delegates from around the state vote 57-47 in favor of the new U.S. Constitution. This makes New Hampshire the ninth and deciding state to ratify. Hopkinton’s delegate votes in favor; Concord’s delegate, the burly Capt. Ben Emery, votes no, as do representatives of Warner, Salisbury and Loudon.
June 21, 1909: The White Parks beat the Old Timers 14-0 in the first game of Concord’s Sunset League. The four-team after-supper baseball league will have games daily except Saturday at 6:15 p.m. The teams play till dark or for five innings, whichever comes first. Crowds of 400-500 gather to watch.
June 21, 1990: With Steve McAuliffe and a large crowd of dignitaries and ordinary citizens in attendance, the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium is dedicated in Concord.
June 22, 2003: The Concord Quarry Dogs bang out 15 hits and draw 10 walks at Doane Diamond in Concord, scoring the most runs in the team’s history, demolishing the Manchester (Conn.) Silkworms, 18-1.
June 22, 2000: Mike Dennehy, who ran John McCain’s 2000 New Hampshire primary campaign, and Nancy Merrill, the campaign’s vice chairwoman, are elected to the Republican National Committee. They succeed Concord’s Tom Rath and Portsmouth’s Ruth Griffin, both of whom supported George W. Bush in the primary.
June 22, 1825: The Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American Revolution, visits Concord during his government-sponsored tour of all 24 states. Driven down Main Street in a four-wheel carriage, he is greeted by a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000. At the State House, 200 to 300 Revolutionary War veterans gather to shake his hand. Many weep. Nine years later, Concord’s Fayette Street will be named in memory of this day. An elm planted on the State House lawn to commemorate the event will flourish until 1956, when the state pays $300 to get rid of it. Gov. Lane Dwinell will salvage a few engraved gavels from the Lafayette elm. Other residents will use slabs from the trunk for coffee tables.
June 22, 1843: Col. Franklin Pierce, the future president, delivers a temperance lecture at Concord’s old North Church. Pierce is part of a committee whose aim is to “most certainly and speedily cause the use and traffic in intoxicating drinks to cease in town, except for mechanical and medical purposes.”
June 22, 1941: On the day that Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia dominates the radio news, Yankee third baseman Red Rolfe of Penacook homers with two out and no one on the ninth inning to tie a game with Detroit.
June 23, 2001: A strong economy and a shortage of apartments have pushed up the median cost of rent and utilities for a two-bedroom apartment in Concord by 23 percent over the last four years, the Monitor reports. What used to cost $710 a month now costs $873, according to the state Housing Finance Authority.
June 23, 2000: James Hall is convicted of second-degree murder for strangling his 77-year-old mother in their Concord apartment.
June 23, 1823: The New Hampshire Historical Society, formed earlier in the year in Portsmouth, moves to Concord. It will occupy a room in the State House for three years before moving to North Main Street near Ferry Street.
June 23, 1785: A committee is appointed to lay out Main Street in Concord. A final report won’t be drafted until 1798.
June 23, 1815: A freight boat journeys from Boston to Concord for the first time.
