July 23, 1927: Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, who is scheduled to arrive in Concord two days from now on his triumphant tour around the country, lands at Concord airport. The reason: the airport in Portland, Maine, his scheduled stop, is fogged in.
July 24, 2002: An 11-run second inning and sparkling defense propels Concord National to the Junior League Softball Championship, with a 13-2 victory over the host Bedford team.
July 24, 2003: Manuel Gehring, the Concord man accused of fatally shooting his children, Sarah and Philip, pleads not guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in Hillsborough County Superior Court.
July 25, 1874: Thirteen months after a fire destroyed the church on the same site, the cornerstone is laid for the North Congregational Church at North Main and Chapel streets. It will be ready for worship in March 1876.
July 25, 1927: A crowd of more than 40,000 gathers to greet Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, who lands his “Spirit of St. Louis” at Concord airport at 1:44 p.m. The band strikes up “Hail to the Chief” as the hero of transatlantic flight takes his seat on the platform. “This airport can still be improved in many ways,” Lindbergh tells the crowd. “In the future it will bring you considerable air commerce.”
July 25, 1927: A police squad of six officers enters the home of Ruth A. McKinnon on Runnels Road in Penacook. The officers arrest MacKinnon and confiscate 106 bottles of beer, empty pint and quart bottles and a capping machine. MacKinnon will be fined $100 and $41.10 in court costs and sentenced to 60 days in the house of corrections in Boscawen, but the sentence will be suspended. With her arrest, the police believe they have cut off the supply of liquor to this portion of Merrimack County.
July 25, 2002: It’s been 20 years since a significant building was torn down on Main Street, the Monitor reports. This week, the Sears block takes its place in history alongside such historic demolitions as the Centennial Block in front of Durgin Lane, the retail building that once stood in Eagle Square and the Phenix Hotel.
July 26, 1927: His tour stop over, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh and his “Spirit of St. Louis” take off from Concord Airport at 11:50 a.m. There is a report that he passed over Claremont at 1:20 p.m. on his way to Springfield, Mass.
July 26, 1945: The war in Europe over, Winston Churchill is ousted as prime minister. His dinner guest on the night of his defeat: John G. Winant of Concord, U.S. ambassador to Britain.
July 26, 1965: Trains carrying 71-foot laminated wooden arches arrive in Concord. Shipped from Oregon, they will become rafters for the new Everett Arena.
July 27, 1927: The police report more evidence of the pickpockets who worked the crowd during Col. Charles A. Lindbergh’s visit to Concord two days before. Two young boys have found 20 more pocketbooks in a hole covered with paper behind the airport hangar. The number of people robbed now totals at least 36.
July 27, 2000: A Massachusetts company presents preliminary plans for a 300,000-square-foot retail development on 53 acres between South Main and Hall streets in Concord. The project will meet with significant opposition from residents of the South End.
July 28, 1827:Othello is performed at the Eagle Coffee House in Concord. Crowds are sparse.
July 28, 1855: The Concord City Council registers its approval of the state’s new anti-drinking law. “Resolved that the late act for the suppression of intemperance in this state meets with our entire approbation. Therefore, resolved that the city marshal and his assistants are requested to prosecute, with promptness and energy, all violations and infringements of said law.”
July 28, 1927: Nellie Taylor Ross, the nation’s first female governor, stops at the Concord home of former New Hampshire governor John G. Winant. She is on her way to Tilton, where she will give a Chatauqua speech in the evening. The Monitor reports that Ross, the former governor of Wyoming, is “noted for her charming manner” and “travels in an expensive car, with her own chauffeur.” Asked whether she will reveal all in her speech, Ross says one hour won’t give her enough time. “There is a difference between the truth and the whole truth,” she says. “Certainly I tell the truth.”
July 28, 2001: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has reached a contract settlement with Concord’s two radiology clinics, the Monitor reports. The deal means local patients insured by Anthem won’t have to drive to Laconia or Manchester for X-rays, mammograms or CT scans.
July 28, 2002: John Frisbee, executive director of the New Hampshire Historical Society, dies at the age of 58. Frisbee took the helm at the historical society in 1987, and it was under his leadership, colleagues said, that the now 179-year-old organization arrived in the modern age. Frisbee led a more than $6 million capital campaign that paid for renovations to the Tuck Library in Concord as well as the purchase, design and construction of the museum, which opened in 1995.
July 28, 2003: A group of residents who have spent the last decade fighting a planned connector road between Concord’s Pleasant and Clinton streets file a lawsuit in Merrimack County Superior Court in an effort to stop the project for good. The lawsuit asks the court to revoke a wetlands permit that gives the city permission to build the Langley Parkway through about 3.5 acres of wetlands near White Farm.
July 29, 1927: Police Chief A.S. Kimball orders the Lapp carnival on the Bridge Street fairgrounds to close “forthwith.” The shutdown follows the arrest of two men who work for the carnival on gambling charges. Both are convicted and fined $50. The chief investigated after receiving reports of gambling and indecent shows at the fair, including one show to which only men were admitted. The sponsoring Elks Club will argue in vain for a reversal of Kimball’s closure order.
July 29, 1988: Developers announce plans for an eight-story office and retail building at the corner of Main and Bridge streets in Concord. (It won’t happen.)
