Aug. 26, 1988: Developers abandon plans for a seven-story hotel on Fort Eddy Road. Instead, Concord will get the LL Bean strip mall.
Aug. 26, 2001: With the state primary more than a year away, republican gubernatorial hopefuls Craig Benson, Gordon Humphrey and Bruce Keough have already begun campaigning, the Monitor reports. GOP strategist Tom Rath, a Concord lawyer, states, “When you’ve has the governorship as long as we had it, six years in the desert makes you look thirsty for a drink.”
Aug. 26, 1952: In an effort to meet New Hampshire’s draft quota, John Greenway, director of state Selective Service, announces that fathers, married men and single men over 26 years old face possible induction into the U.S. Army. This marks the first time these groups are eligible to serve.
Aug. 27, 2002: A crowd at Heritage Heights in Concord peppers the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. John E. Sununu and Sen. Bob Smith, with questions ranging from how to expand affordable housing to whether the United States should invade Iraq.
Aug. 27, 1991: Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder arrives in Concord and plays coy about plans to run for president. “I’m not unmindful at all of all the portents, the omens and the signs relative to being in New Hampshire. I take all of them seriously.” Wilder will eventually jump into the race but then back out.
Aug. 29, 2001: Republicans agree the budget is balanced, after fumbling a first-punch radio campaign, airing ads that accuse Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the likely Democratic candidate for Senate in 2002, of cultivating a $200 million state budget deficit. The GOP replaces the erroneous ad with a new one that attacks Shaheen for being a big spender.
Aug. 29, 2000: George W. Bush returns to the state as the Republican presidential nominee, six months after voters here handed him his worst defeat of the primary season. In November, Bush will win New Hampshire, the only Northeastern state not to vote for Democrat Al Gore.
Aug. 29, 1814: New Hampshire re-elects Daniel Webster to Congress on an anti-war platform. In a Federalist sweep of the state, Webster’s brother Ezekiel is elected to the state Senate.
Aug. 30, 2001: Michael Johnson, Merrimack County’s top prosecutor of nearly two decades, announces he will leave his position to take a job with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he will serve as chief of prosecution.
Aug. 30, 1970: At the Highway Hotel in Concord, the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pa., honors 10 New Hampshire people for efforts to maintain “the American way.” Among the honorees are Union Leader publisher William Loeb and gubernatorial candidate Meldrim Thomson Jr.
Aug. 30, 1862: After a federal draft called for nine-month volunteers, the city of Concord offers a bounty of $100 to any resident who will sign up by Sept. 15.
Aug. 30, 1869: Henry F. Hollis is born. He will become a Concord lawyer and, in 1912, the first New Hampshire Democrat in 60 years to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Aug. 30, 1790: A town meeting approves spending 100 pounds to build a “town house” on land near Main and Court streets. The town house will be a meeting place for townspeople and the General Court.
Aug. 30, 1824: Amos Parker, editor of Concord’s weekly Statesman, goes to Boston to invite the Marquis de Lafayette to visit Concord during the Revolutionary War hero’s U.S. tour. Lafayette agrees to come after the dedication of the Bunker Hill Memorial the following June. Parker describes Lafayette as “a dignified personage, in his 60s, grown portly,” wearing buff-colored cotton pants, a swans’-down vest, a blue broadcloth coat with gilt buttons, a beaver top hat and plain shoes.
Aug. 31, 2001: In a decision that alters the juvenile justice system for some young offenders, the state’s Supreme Court rules that teens have a right to a jury trial if they face jail time. Because of this, judges across the state release a few of these inmates, whose incarcerations are suddenly unconstitutional.
Aug. 31, 1866: The Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, author of a Concord history a decade earlier, is named state historian. He will holds this position for 11 years, during which he will compile 10 volumes of provincial and state papers for publication.
Aug. 31, 2000: Author Russell Banks visits with inmates at New Hampshire State Prison. “In many ways,” he tells them, “you guys are my ideal readers.”
Aug. 31, 1892: The statue of antislavery Sen. John P. Hale is completed outside the State House.
Aug. 31, 1983: Gov. John Sununu nominates David H. Souter to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. “What’s significant about Judge Souter is that his legal work and legal analysis is not influenced by the trends of the day,” says Attorney General Gregory Smith.
Sept. 1, 2002: The Monitor reports that both the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial primary races are too close to call, according to a poll conducted for the newspaper. A survey of 300 likely GOP primary voters showed Cabletron co-founder Craig Benson leading former U.S. senator Gordon Humphrey 33 percent to 31 percent. Former state senator Bruce Keough came in third at 21 percent, and 15 percent of the voters hadn’t picked a candidate yet. The margin of error was plus or minus 6 percent.
Sept. 1, 2000: The high school football season kicks off with a couple of routs. Concord wallops Portsmouth, 42-0, while Kearsarge runs over Bow, 41-0.
Sept. 1, 1782: The Rev. Timothy Walker, who has served as Concord’s Puritan minister from around the time of its settlement in 1730, collapses while preparing for a service and dies. He is 77 years old.
Sept. 1, 1964: The U.S. Census Bureau announces that New Hampshire has retained its national ranking in estimated population figures. With a population of 654,000, the state comes in 46th. Vermont is the only New England state with fewer people.
Sept. 1, 1939: Germany attacks Poland. The Concord Monitor’s lead editorial says: “We feel certain that try as hard as we may, we cannot stay out of the war if it is at all prolonged.”
