Oct. 29, 1963: A crowd of 600 to 1,000 – mostly college students and other young people – break through a police cordon at Concord Airport to greet Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. “I don’t know when I’ll be back up here again,” says Goldwater, “but it won’t be long.”
Oct. 29, 1795: Concord Bridge, the town’s first span across the Merrimack, opens with a party and parade. It is near the site of today’s Manchester Street bridge. A second toll bridge will be built to East Concord in 1796.
Oct. 29, 1792: The first issue of The Mirror is published in Concord. The cost: 5 shillings per year. The publishers requests 1 shilling cash and the rest in “country produce.”
Oct. 29, 1870: A committee recommends to the residents of Concord that Long Pond become the municipal water supply. After more than two years of contentious debate, the first water will flow from the pond into the pipes.
Oct. 30, 2003: Sen. John Edwards picks up one of the most coveted endorsements in the New Hampshire primary, winning the support of state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro.
Oct. 30, 2001: The prospect of hundreds of mill workers losing their homes won’t stop gambling opponents from lobbying against a proposed casino in Berlin and the jobs it would create, the Monitor reports. And even the usual supporters of expanded gaming say building a casino in Berlin is a bad idea.
Oct. 30, 2000: Representatives of Manchester Sand and Gravel present the Hooksett Planning Board with a proposal to build 800 homes and a championship golf course on 3,800 acres near the Allenstown line.
Oct. 30, 1992: Campaigning in Manchester, Democratic vice presidential candidate Al Gore Jr. joins a name-calling bout with President Bush, who has ridiculed Gore’s “far out” environmental stands. “ ‘Mr. Ozone,’ he calls me, or sometimes just ‘Ozone,’ for short,” says Gore. The veep suggests a nickname for Bush might be “Lips,” as in “Read my . . .”
Oct. 31, 1789: George Washington, the new president, reaches Portsmouth by stagecoach. He will stay for four days. Thirteen men row him around the harbor in “a great red, white and blue barge, amid the acclamations of hundreds on shore.” Washington also visits the fishing grounds, where he takes a line but catches only a half-pound fish.
Oct. 31, 1783: New Hampshire’s constitution is written. It includes, among other provisions, a prohibition on Dartmouth faculty in the Legislature.
Nov. 1, 2001: An anthrax scare closes Boscawen Elementary School, forcing students to wait at Merrimack Valley High School until parents can pick them up. The scare turns out to be a false alarm.
Nov. 1, 2000: The candidates for governor file reports on their spending, and the numbers add up to the most expensive race in state history. Republican Gordon Humphrey has also broken Jay Lucas’s 1998 record for one candidate. Lucas spent $1.6 million; Humphrey has raised and spent nearly $2.3 million.
Nov. 1, 1819: A new animal law takes effect in Concord: “whereas the inhabitants of Concord and travelers with teams and loaded sleighs are frequently annoyed by cows and sheep running at large, therefore hereafter no cow or sheep shall be permitted to run at-large in the Main street . . . or within half a mile to the west of Main Street.”
Nov. 1, 1845: Thomas Potter of Concord falls 34 feet from a chestnut tree without fracturing a limb. Twenty-four years earlier, he fell the same distance from the same tree.
Nov. 1, 1842: The New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane opens in Concord. One of the first patients: a man from Tuftonboro who prays and preaches on the subject of the Second Coming for 4 hours each morning and remains quiet the rest of the day.
Nov. 1, 1759: Pembroke is created as a self-governing parish. Gov. Benning Wentworth names it after his English friend and political ally, the Earl of Pembroke.
Nov. 1, 1791: A New Hampshire law against “profane cursing and swearing” takes effect. Fines: 8 shillings for first offense, 16 for second convictions, 24 for subsequent penalties. If the convict can’t pay: public whippings of not more than 10 lashes.
Nov. 2, 1982: John H. Sununu is elected New Hampshire governor, defeating two-term incumbent Gov. Hugh Gallen.
Nov. 2, 1996: Loudon dedicates a new playground, built by volunteers led by Dennis Jakubowski, an Eagle Scout candidate and Merrimack Valley senior.
Nov. 2, 1914: With Europe at war, the keel is laid for the first submarine to be constructed at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Construction will take 3½ years.
Nov. 3, 2003: Seven candidates show up at the secretary of state’s office in Concord, marking the first day that presidential candidates are able to file papers to enter January’s primary. The only one whose name carries any cachet in Washington is Dick Gephardt, who makes a lunchtime appearance between campaign stops.
Nov. 3, 1947: John G. Winant, former governor and former U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, commits suicide in Concord.
Nov. 3, 1964: New Hampshire Republicans have a time on election night. Democratic Gov. John King is reelected and will have a Democratic majority to work with on the executive Council. The Senate is split 12-12. Bert Teague, executive director of the state GOP keeps a stiff upper lip. “The Republican Party in New Hampshire is not dead. If anything, we should come out of this stronger than ever,” he says.
Nov. 3, 1908: Concord elects Democrat Charles French as its new mayor. At midnight, a cheering crowd carries him through the city streets. Outgoing Mayor Charles Corning, who did not seek re-election, disapproves of his successor. The result will bring about “a veritable misfortune unless French reforms his loud manners & modifies his coarse & nasty speech,” Corning writes in his diary.
Nov. 4, 2002: Three dozen South Enders turn out to meet with city councilors about a few neighborhood hot topics: the Northwest Bypass, the Richmond Co. shopping center and the Interstate 93 expansion.
Nov. 4, 1863: With recruitment lagging more than two weeks after President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 new Union troops, New Hampshire Gov. Joseph Gilmore announces a state enlistment quota of 3,768 men. As enticements, enlistees are offered their choice of corps and state bounties of $302 for fresh recruits, $402 for re-enlisting veterans.
Nov. 4, 1947: Concord voters apparently aren’t in the mood to have fun this Election Day. By wide margins, they reject plans to construct a man-made lake and to permit high school sports and recreational bowling on Sundays.
Nov 4, 1976: Two days after winning a third term, Gov. Mel Thomson sums of the voters’ mood: “They think I’m an SOB, but they still vote for me.” Thomson says he may seek a fourth term or even a stint in the U.S. Senate. (Ultimately, he will lose to Democrat Hugh Gallen.)
