Jan. 3, 1852: Visiting Concord, Henry Hubbard slips on the icy walkway on his way to the Eagle Hotel. The fall breaks his left arm. Hubbard will sue the town and win a judgment of $800.
Jan. 3, 1952: The Concord City Council rejects plans for a $1.75 million jet fighter base for the National Guard at Concord Airport. Officials call the plan too disruptive for residents of the Heights.
Jan. 4, 2001: Elizabeth McLaughlin, a 101-year-old resident of Concord’s Havenwood-Heritage Heights Retirement Community, gets some extra attention for a day after being invited to the governor’s inaugural address at the State House. “It (was) a day I never expected,” McLaughlin says later. “I’m not an important girl at all.”
Jan. 4, 2003: A federal judge has denied Gary Sampson’s plea to escape the death penalty, the Monitor reports. Sampson is accused of killing Robert “Eli” Whitney of Penacook along with two Massachusetts’s men. He will be found guilty in Massachusetts and sentenced to death, the first time the state has issued such a sentence since 1973.
Jan. 5, 1791: The Legislature gathers in Concord’s new “town house” near Main and Court streets. The Legislature still moves its meeting site from town to town but will often convene at the town house until the granite State House is finished in 1819.
Jan. 5, 1973: A New Hampshire Hospital security guard is fired because his hair is too long to suit Concord Police Chief Walter Carlson. Guards must have Concord police authority to function. By summer, the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission will order the guard back to work.
Jan. 5, 1996: The early-morning low temperature in Concord is a brisk 18 below zero.
Jan. 6, 1790: George Hough, 31, who has hauled in a hand press and type cases from Windsor, Vt., publishes Concord’s first newspaper, The Concord Herald and New Hampshire Intelligencer. His office is a one-story print shop on what will one day be the State House grounds. Printed under the weekly’s nameplate, Hough’s motto is: “The Press is the Cradle of Science, the Nurse of Genius, and the Shield of Liberty.” A later journalist will call “Pa” Hough “a man without guile, who never made an enemy, whose only delusion was that all men were as honest as himself.”
Jan. 6, 1823: The first New Hampshire Statesman is published out of the Carrigain Block on North Main Street in Concord. Publisher Luther Roby and editor Amos Parker are among a group of Democrats who have had a falling out with Isaac Hill, a party leader and editor of the New Hampshire Patriot.
Jan. 7, 1904: At its annual meeting, the First Church of Christ Science thanks Mary Baker Eddy of Concord for her gift of $120,000 toward the Concord church, now under construction.
Jan. 7, 1942: A tannery is proposed for the large Penacook factory once used by New Hampshire Spinning Mills. Nearby residents plan to protest.
Jan. 7, 1942: Concord starts a three-day spell of bitterly cold weather with a low temperature of 15 below zero. The next day it’ll be 25 below, and the day after that, the temperature will fall to 22 below.
Jan. 8, 1878: A temperature of 35 below zero is recorded in Concord, an all-time record cold reading for the city that will stand for more than 65 years.
Jan. 8, 1895: The Supreme Court and State Library buildings are dedicated in Concord.
Jan. 8, 1988: During a visit to Pleasant View retirement community in Concord, GOP presidential candidate Alexander Haig impresses resident Millicent Sawyer. “He’s even better-looking in person than he is on television,” she says.
Jan. 9, 1944: Miss Grace Blanchard, Concord’s retired librarian of 40 years, dies. In her will, she leaves $40,000 in public bequests, including $25,000 to the library.
Jan. 9, 1974: Twenty-five people brave a snowstorm to gather at the State House to pray in support of beleaguered President Nixon. “God Loves Nixon,” reads one banner.
Jan. 9, 1997: Jeanne Shaheen is inaugurated, becoming New Hampshire’s first female governor.
