Nov. 29, 2003: The wind whips across central New Hampshire with gusts of more than 45 mph, knocking out power and tearing down lines and trees. Public safety officials spend much of the day responding to calls for downed wires and trees in at least 20 communities.
Nov. 29, 1867: Ingalls & Brown’s Quadrille Band plays at a grand ball at Concord’s Eagle Hall. “If you don’t dance,” exhorts the ad in the Patriot, “go to hear the music.”
Nov. 30, 1960: Bob Tewksbury is born. He will be a star pitcher at Merrimack Valley High School and go on to a long career in the major leagues.
Nov. 30, 1870: Fire burns out the stone warehouse behind the Eagle Hotel, leaving only the granite walls standing. Today, the warehouse is home to the Museum of New Hampshire History.
Nov. 30, 1983: Mayor David Coeyman is squired through the streets of Concord in a rickshaw pulled by Somersworth Mayor George Bald. Coeyman, a former two-pack-a-day smoker, won a bet that he could quit.
Dec. 1, 1989: In Concord for a speaking engagement, peace activist William Sloan Coffin makes a prediction. Once Americans realize that the fall of the Iron Curtain means military power is no longer the central prerequisite for governing, he says, they will turn to the Democratic Party.
Dec. 1, 2001: With a weekend of spontaneous and rehearsed music, the Concord Community Music School celebrates a milestone: the grand opening of a $1.5 million addition that more than doubles the space for the school.
Dec. 2, 1991: A fire consumes Souther’s Market on Liberty Street.
Dec. 2, 2003: Cars skid out of control this morning all over central and southern New Hampshire after snow squalls cause blizzard-like conditions and leave the roads coated with ice and snow.
Dec. 3, 1847: For $1,000, Edward H. Rollins buys R.C. Osgood’s drugstore on Main Street opposite the State House. Rollins will become a leading Republican, and the back room of the store will be his political headquarters, where policies are crafted and candidates made.
Dec. 3, 1910: Mary Baker Eddy, Bow native and founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist, dies in Chestnut Hill, near Boston.
Dec. 3, 1934: Orchestra leader Guy Lombardo plays to a sold-out audience at the Concord City Auditorium. The group arrived the night before and checked into the old Eagle Hotel. After an early afternoon press conference, Guy put together a touch football game on nearby Higgins Field (site of Hannaford).
Dec. 3, 1985: Louis Cartier walks into Concord High School with a loaded shotgun. After Cartier holds a student hostage and the police at bay, a police officer shoots and kills Cartier.
Dec. 3, 2002: The Chico Enterprise-Record, a California newspaper, reports that Andrew Mickel’s parents turned him in to the police after he called them and bragged about shooting a Red Bluff, Calif., police officer on Nov. 19. Mickel was arrested a week later when he surrendered to the Concord police and FBI agents after a 2½-hour standoff at the Holiday Inn on North Main Street.
Dec. 4, 1900: In raids, 16 police officers from Manchester and Suncook bust 20 people under the state’s prohibition statute. Since bootleggers are still active, “there will be plenty to drink,” a Suncook villager says.
Dec. 5, 1908: Fire Chief William Green sets out for the movies at Phenix Hall, but even though the same show played at the nearby Opera House for more than a year, the Phenix is filled. There are plans to convert yet another building in the Durgin block into a theater. “Verily, the people are moving picture mad,” Mayor Charles Corning writes in his diary.
Dec. 5, 1999: A fire breaks out at South Congregational Church in Concord 45 minutes before a scheduled performance of Handel’s Messiah. After about 80 singers and musicians in formal attire gather on Pleasant Street, they head for nearby St. Paul’s Church, where about 200 people are treated to an impromptu rendition of the oratorio’s most famous section.
Dec. 5, 2001: The Concord High School wrestling team opens its season at Bishop Guertin, heading home with a 54-12 win.
