Sept. 16, 2003: The Bishop Brady girls’ soccer team earns its first victory of the season with a 3-1 decision against Kearsarge.
September 16, 1820: John George of Concord has raised a radish weighing 3 pounds ½ ounce and measuring 13¾ inches in diameter.
Sept. 16, 1975: Democrat John Durkin beats Republican Louis Wyman in a special election for a U.S. Senate seat. The seat has been in dispute since the November 1974 election. Wyman’s loss comes despite campaigning on his behalf by both President Ford and former California governor Ronald Reagan.
Sept. 16, 1977: Gov. Meldrim Thomson denies any involvement with a picture of a badly burned child which accompanied a letter he wrote calling for the removal of UN Ambassador Andrew Young. The letter, written by Thomson in his capacity as chairman of the National Conservative Caucus, solicited donations to push for Young’s ouster. It was accompanied by a photograph of the badly burned child, identifying the child as a victim of the black power movement Young supports.
Sept. 17, 2002: The curtain opens on the U.S. Senate race with both Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. John Sununu taking their respective stages with swords drawn. “John Sununu thinks that being pro-business means giving the biggest corporations with the biggest political lobbies the biggest break – even if that costs New Hampshire businesses and workers,” Shaheen tells business leaders during a morning event in Manchester. Sununu replies at a midday press conference in Concord that, on the contrary, it was Shaheen who had failed the state’s business community.
Sept. 17, 1973: The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee rejects a telegram from New Hampshire Gov. Mel Thomson urging members to halt their hearings.
Sept. 17, 1847: With 85 recruits for the 9th Regiment, Lieutenant Charles F. Low, son of Concord’s renowned General Joseph Low, sails for Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the seat of war.
Sept. 17, 1787: John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman, New Hampshire’s delegates to the constitutional convention at Philadelphia, sign the U.S. Constitution.
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. Sen. 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. 18, 1990: Steven McAuliffe testifies on behalf of Supreme Court nominee David Souter before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: “In David Souter’s attorney general’s office we sought the right answer, not the expedient answer – and never the political answer,” McAuliffe says.
Sept. 18, 1679: King Charles II ordains that as of Jan. 1, 1680, New Hampshire will have its own government. He names John Cutt, a wealthy Portsmouth merchant, the first governor.
Sept. 19, 2001: 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, 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, 1983: In a speech to health care professionals, Gov. John Sununu loses his temper, exhorting them to be less selfish. “Find me a system where you’re less concerned about covering your asses and more about caring for the patient,” he says after two doctors cite the risk of malpractice claims as a major cause of soaring health care costs.
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. 20, 1992: The first Sunday Monitor is published.
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-CUIO. 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 Concord, had to deal with a major employer closing its doors.”
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, 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. 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.
September 22, 1991: Refurbished and restored through a community effort, the City Auditorium re-opens with a gala variety show.
Sept. 22, 1849: Asked to change Concord from a town to a city, local voters say no, by a vote of 637 against and 183 in favor. Four years later, they’ll change their mind.
