June 14, 1831: Benjamin Brown French, a rising politico from Chester, goes to a party in Concord with future U.S. Sen. Charles G. Atherton and future President Franklin Pierce. His companions, both in their 20s, are “ ‘smashed’ by a pair of bright eyes, & a beautiful face,” but French “would as soon think of falling in love with an elegant piece of statuary.” He tells his diary: “Give me eyes that can pierce the very soul, & a countenance that bespeaks a mind within.”
June 14, 1962: Astronaut Alan Shepard of Derry is in Concord for the unveiling of his portrait at the State House. After a week of speeches and banquets, he says, he is glad the picture shows him in a space suit so people will know that “at least once in a while I do work.”
June 15, 1776: Three men, including Concord’s Timothy Walker Jr., write a resolution instructing Dr. Josiah Bartlett and William Whipple, New Hampshire’s delegates in Philadelphia, to join “in declaring the 13 united colonies a free and independent state.” New Hampshire will support such a declaration “with our lives and fortunes,” the resolution says.
June 15, 1799: The Concord Musical Society is incorporated “to encourage and promote the practice of sacred musick in Concord.”
June 15, 2000: Concord Police Chief Bill Halacy submits his resignation, just two years after taking over the department. “The position is so totally consuming,” he says. “I’m feeling like I’m missing out on a lot of the rest of my life.”
June 15, 2002: Concord High School junior Rachel Umberger wins the national title for the 800 meters. She runs it in 2 minutes, 9.67 seconds, a personal best.
June 16, 2000: James Hall, accused of killing his 77-year-old mother, testifies at his trial that the slaying was not planned. He says he strangled her after enduring weeks of insults until finally, “I felt as if I was collapsing inside, feeling this most intense pain. Pain I’d never felt in my life. I lunged out with my arm. I went into her neck and I pressed.”
June 17, 1840: On Concord’s Rumford Square, a 5-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, 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, 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 18, 1853: A group of Concord citizens meets and raises money for a street sprinkler to keep the dust down on Main Street.
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 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 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, 2002: After 66 years, Washington Street School in Penacook closes. In the fall, students will attend Penacook Elementary School, a brand-new facility a mile away.
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 20, 1841: More than 1,000 people gather at the Old North Church to hear a lecture by John H.W. Hawkins, a self-proclaimed “reformed inebriate” who is now a silver-tongued missionary for temperance.
