June 30, 2003: The House narrowly fails to override Gov. Craig Benson’s veto of the Legislature’s 2004-05 state budget, leaving New Hampshire without a new two-year spending plan when the 2004 fiscal year began at midnight. The government will not shut down today, however, because lawmakers passed a temporary budget that will keep the state running through Oct. 1.
June 30, 2001: A year-long effort to protect Concord’s Sunnycrest Farm from development has succeeded, the Monitor reports. Dozens of donors came up with about $50,000 in the past two weeks to meet the deadline for raising the $1.2 million purchase amount.
June 30, 2000: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen establishes a Judicial Selection Commission charged with seeking out, screening and recommending prospective judges. She will retain sole authority to appoint judges but will be constrained in her choice to a pool of names presented by the commission.
June 30, 1944: More than three weeks after D-Day, dreaded telegrams reach Concord homes bringing news of casualties in the Allied invasion of Europe. They include a paratrooper and an Army lieutenant who are both missing and Lt. Guy Gowen, a 24-year-old infantry patrol leader who had reached Normandy by glider before being killed in action. Gowen had been a two-sport star at Concord High, graduating in 1937 and going on to UNH.
June 30, 1990: Hundreds – and over ensuing days thousands – of people come to pay their respects at the Moving Wall during its stop at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. The wall is a portable replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
July 1, 2003: Attorney General Peter Heed says prison officials failed to investigate or react to clues that, in hindsight, foretold of last month’s prison break by three men at the state prison in Concord. A tip from another inmate and a pair of bolt cutters found thrown over a prison fence were among the clues that officials failed to react to, Heed says.
July 1, 1927: At nightfall, 2,000 people gather at the State House plaza to watch Mayor Fred Marden push the button that will illuminate Concord’s new “White Way” for the first time. Concord Electric Co. has installed 126 large bulbs to light the way, which runs more than mile along Main Street, from Kelly’s drug store to Larkin’s store. A Monitor reporter hears someone whisper in the crowd: “I hope they go on.” They do indeed, causing “a spontaneous uproar and the blowing of hundreds of automobile horns.”
July 1, 1776: “The Declaration before Congress is, I think, a pretty good one,” delegate Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire writes from Philadelphia.
July 1, 1925: The Granite Monthly complains about the proliferation of gas stations in the state. “If stations continue to multiply in the future as they have in the past, there will never be any problem of lighting the Daniel Webster Highway. It will soon be the best-lighted boulevard in the state, for every station is well-lighted to attract the attention of the traveler.”
July 1, 1789: The Rev. Israel Evans is ordained as Concord’s second Congregationalist minister, succeeding the Rev. Timothy Walker. The town still pays the minister’s salary and living expenses. Walker, the first minister, served more than 58 years from his ordination in 1730.
July 2, 1976: Gov. Mel Thomson orders a full investigation into what happened to 1,500 pounds of chicken that never made it to a state worker picnic at New Hampshire Hospital. The birds, worth $780, were contaminated and disposed of.
July 2, 1776: Dr. Josiah Bartlett and William Whipple represent New Hampshire as the Continental Congress declares American independence.
July 3, 1976: Gov. Mel Thomson says if Canada doesn’t allow athletes for Nationalist China to participate in the Montreal Olympics, he will order the Taiwanese flag flown at the State House and at his official residence in East Concord throughout the Games.
July 3, 1990: Stalled for four years in his effort to build a huge housing project and luxury golf course on Concord’s Broken Ground, Vermonter Barry Stem announces plans to build a 200-room hotel and conference center and a 300,000-square-foot office park on part of the site.
July 4, 1899: Ten thousand people attend the dedication of the Memorial Arch in front of the State House. Cut from Concord granite, it is 33 feet 8 inches high and 53 feet wide. Though built on state land, it was paid for by the city and commemorates Concord’s war veterans.
July 4, 1891: A crowd of 6,000 to 7,000 people gathers at the circus grounds just above Bridge Street along the Merrimack River to watch a holiday baseball game. The Concord YMCA team, a perennial power, defeats the Concord Stars, 13-12. “Fielding at times was rather loose,” the Monitor reports.
July 4, 1842: Hooligans set a barrel of tar on fire in the State House plaza. “The tossing of fire-balls had begun when the police of this town interfered,” according to a city history.
July 4, 1776: New Hampshire delegates Dr. Josiah Bartlett and William Whipple, with the rest of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, accept a draft of the Declaration of Independence.
July 4, 1820: The fare from Concord to Boston by stagecoach is cut to $1, the result of competition between two lines.
July 5, 2002: Ted Williams, the legendary Boston Red Sox outfielder, dies at the age of 83. Local fan Tony Heath, owner of Quality Cash Market in East Concord, reflects “We shared the same dream. That was to see the Red Sox win the World Series. It’s too bad he didn’t live to see that happen.”
July 5, 1874: Prominent Concord lawyer Anson Southard Marshall dies of a gunshot wound. The previous day, Marshall took his wife and young son for a Fourth of July picnic near Lake Penacook. The family heard target shooting by a militia company nearby. Marshall stood to call to the shooters and request that they be careful. He was immediately shot in the abdomen.
July 6, 2002: The State House is getting a makeover, the Monitor reports. The white portion of the octagonal structure, just below the gilded part of the dome, will be stripped and restored to the tune of $174,000.
July 6, 2001: Joseph Whittey is found guilty of murdering 81-year-old Yvonne Fine in Concord nearly 20 years ago. Although Whittey had been a suspect early on, it wasn’t until last year that investigators discovered DNA evidence allowing them to charge him with the crime. Already in prison for attempted murder, Whittey is sentenced to life.
July 6, 2000: Secretary of State Bill Gardner appoints an eight-member “think tank” to review the state’s election laws. The commission is supposed to report back after the fall elections with recommendations for the Legislature.
July 6, 1849: The Legislature officially gives Concord permission to become a full-fledged city. One big argument in favor of abandoning the town meeting form of government is that there is no place big enough to accommodate all the town’s voters.
July 6, 1941: With a crowd of 60,948 jamming Yankee Stadium for the dedication of a monument to Lou Gehrig, Gehrig’s former teammate and bridge partner, Red Rolfe of Penacook, hits
three singles and a homer in the first game of a doubleheader sweep. Yankee center fielder Joe DiMaggio extends his hitting streak to 48 games. Rolfe is in a hot spell of his own. Over eight games, he will make 15 hits in 28 at-bats.
