June 2, 2002: The Concord Quarry Dogs are trickling into town, ready for a sophomore season organizers hope will capture as many hearts and mitts as did last year’s honeymoon, the Monitor reports. Last year, the city gave its Q-puppies unconditional love, even as the New England Collegiate Baseball League team slipped to the bottom of its pision. This summer, Concord Baseball Association members are trying to set up another summer affair.
June 2, 2000: Souther’s Market, one of Concord’s original groceries, closes after more than 50 years in business.
June 2, 1784: New Hampshire adopts a new constitution. The title “governor,” too reminiscent of British colonial rule, is changed to “president.” To celebrate the event, a parade marches up Main Street in Concord to the Old North Church.
June 2, 1790: The New Hampshire House impeaches Judge Woodbury Langdon of the superior court. His crime: failure to show up in court. His complaint: low pay.
June 2, 1819: The State House opens in Concord. The legislative session will be notable for halting the practice of state subsidy for the Congregationalist Church.
June 3, 1895: A burglar or burglars clean out the State House safe, taking $6,000.
June 4, 2003: Philip Dick, Kevin Gil and Christopher McNeil cut holes in razor wire fences and escape from the North State Street prison in Concord.
June 4, 2001: The Concord School Board approves a policy prohibiting students on sports teams or in clubs from attending gatherings where other students are using alcohol or drugs. If students are caught – regardless of whether they were drinking or getting high – they, along with a parent or guardian, will have to meet with a school counselor to discuss the risks associated with alcohol and drug abuse.
June 4, 1819: A great parade of Concord citizens, soldiers, musicians and legislators escorts new Gov. Samuel Bell, on horseback, from Boscawen to the new State House. The procession is greeted with “bells, the thunder of artillery, and the gratulations of the thousands,” the Patriot reports. “The day was remarkably fine.”
June 4, 1973: Gov. Mel Thomson establishes a box at the Concord post office where residents are asked to report criminal activities. Senate Vice President Harry Spanos is apoplectic. “What this latest effort does is to make us a state of informers, not unlike some of the totalitarian states of the past and present,” he says.
June 4, 1973: The Concord School Board votes to build a 450-pupil, $1.9 million school for grades 4-6 off Portsmouth Street. It will be known as Broken Ground School.
June 5, 2003: Just 29 hours after they cut holes in razor wire fences to escape from the North State Street prison in Concord, Philip Dick, Kevin Gil and Christopher McNeil are caught at a campground in Plymouth, Mass.
June 5, 2001: The Concord Quarry Dogs win their home opener, 2-0. A crowd of 1,850 attends the New England Collegiate Baseball League game at Memorial Field.
June 5, 1845: John Parker Hale and Franklin Pierce debate slavery before an overflow crowd at the Old North Meeting House in Concord. After one antislavery speech from Hale, a veteran known as Old John Virgin blurts out: “Give it to ’em, Jack. Drive the poor vipers into their dens, and make ‘em pull their holes in after them.” In response to a pro-Southern argument from Pierce, Hale proclaims: “I refuse to bow down and worship slavery.”
June 5, 1989: Concord’s CAT buses roll for the first time. Rides are free for the first week. It’s the first public transportation available in Concord in 11 years.
June 6, 2003: Bishop Brady High School in Concord graduates 101 seniors. Laconia High School graduates 163.
June 6, 2001: Concord High graduate Matt Tupman hits the first home run in Concord Quarry Dogs history, a blast over the centerfield wall at Keene’s Alumni Field. The team improves its record to 3-0 for the season.
June 6, 1944: At 3:55 on this Tuesday morning, Captain Leo F. Blodgett of the Concord Fire Department sets off Concord’s downtown fire alarm, sounding two “eights.” This is the signal that the Allied invasion of Europe has begun. All over Concord, lights blink on as residents rise to turn on their radios. Gov. Robert O. Blood declares that this is a day for prayer and hope, not for celebration. Special church services throughout the state are widely attended.
June 6, 1878: The Rev. Nathaniel Bouton dies at age 79. He was Concord’s Congregationalist minister for 40 years and the state historian for 11. In 1856, he published a history of Concord.
June 6, 1861: Harriet Patience Dame, a 46-year-old Concord nurse, enlists as hospital matron of the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment. She will keep the job for the duration of the war without a day’s illness or absence.
June 7, 2003: The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay father of two, is overwhelmingly elected as the next bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in the world.
June 7, 1765: The provincial government grants Concord a royal charter. Since 1733, the town had been called Rumford, and before that, under a 1725 Massachusetts charter, Penny-Cook.
June 7, 1965: To celebrate the city’s bicentennial, Concord leaders bury a time capsule in the State House plaza, to be reopened on June 7, 2015. Among the items inside: marble from the giant railroad station demolished in 1961 and wood from the State House dome.
June 7, 1900: Gov. Theodore Roosevelt of New York speaks to the graduation luncheon at St. Paul’s School. The future president tells the boys: “No fooling, no shirking, and hit the line hard.”
June 7, 1989: Concord area religious leaders take out newspaper ads condemning three recent anti-Semitic actions: graffiti on the bike path across Turkey Pond, newsletters on cars outside two supermarkets and a swastika painted on the roof of Temple Beth Jacob.
