Jan. 15, 1932: It’s a January thaw to remember: For the third day in a row, the temperature in Concord tops 60 degrees.
Jan. 15, 1992: In a front page editorial, Union Leader publisher Nackey Loeb offers some advice to President George Bush, who is paying the state a visit: “When you are up here, please do not give us any more of this ‘not to worry’ line. It’s not much comfort to people who have lost their jobs or are scared to death of doing so.”
Jan. 16, 2003: Several school boards around the state have added articles to their school district warrants to voice their opposition to the No Child Left Behind Act, calling it another set of federal education laws that will burden local taxpayers and infringe upon local control of schools, the Monitor reports. School boards in the Merrimack Valley, Inter-Lakes and Gilmanton school districts will ask voters to back the statement at their March meetings.
Jan. 16, 2000: The number of cardiac surgeries at the New England Heart Institute in Manchester has dropped by 17 percent since the opening of rival centers in Concord and Portsmouth. The Manchester hospital has fought to prevent Concord and Portsmouth from performing heart surgeries since 1995, when they first asked the state for permission.
Jan. 16, 1944: All flying and ground school aviation training is suddenly called to halt at Concord Airport. A private flying school under contract with the government had turned out more than 650 pilots for the War Training Service.
Jan. 16, 1973: Gov. Mel Thomson turns in his free lifetime pass to state parks and orders the cancellation of all other such passes. “Being elected to high office does not make the officeholder more equal than his fellow men,” he says.
Jan. 17, 2001: New Hampshire Public Radio announces plans to scrap its classical and jazz programming in favor of news and arts-oriented features. The change in format will prompt a lot of angry letters to the editor, but NHPR will go on to enjoy a record fund-raising campaign.
Jan. 17, 1942: Concord’s zoning board unanimously approves the Brezner Tannery’s takeover of an abandoned mill in Penacook. The tannery will open later in the year, creating 200 jobs.
Jan. 17, 1726: Massachusetts grants permission to settle the area that will become Concord. A supervising committee screens would-be settlers. It wants just 100 families.
Jan. 18, 2003: 200 people rally in front of the State House in Concord, protesting the possibility of military action in Iraq.
Jan. 18, 2000: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen nominates Superior Court Chief Justice Joseph Nadeau to replace the recently retired William Johnson on the state Supreme Court.
Jan. 18, 1742: John McColley is born in Hillsboro, that settlement’s first-born child. Years later, the settlement’s proprietor and namesake, Col. John Hill, will offer McColley and Elizabeth Gibson, Hillsboro’s first-born female, 100 acres if they agree to marry and settle in the town. They will accept the offer.
Jan. 18, 1782: Daniel Webster is born. His parents are Abigail (Nabby) Webster and Captain Ebenezer Webster. The future U.S. senator and renowned nationalist and orator is a frail child.
Jan. 18, 1982: New Hampshire is rattled by the worst earthquake in 42 years. In Concord, a city council meeting has just gotten under way. As Mayor David Coeyman gavels the meeting to order, the windows begin shaking and papers begin shuffling. “I will always remember this,” Coeyman says.
Jan. 19, 2002: In a case that shed harsh light on how the Catholic church deals with pedophilia in the clergy, a Cambridge, Mass., jury convicts John Geoghan, a defrocked priest, of fondling a boy 10 years ago. His conviction will call into question the role of New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack, who was in charge of handling abuse allegations against priests in Massachusetts during the time when the church is now accused of minimizing such cases.
Jan. 19, 2000: A jury finds state prison inmate James Skinner not guilty of murder and manslaughter in the death of another inmate, Eric Balagot. The jury agrees with Skinner’s self-defense claim: that he was fighting off an aggressor who threw the first punch.
Jan. 19, 1968: Speaking to students at St. Paul’s School, Arthur Schlesinger, onetime special adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, opposes U.S. policy in Vietnam. He says it is based on a misguided analysis of post-World War II political realities.
Jan. 19, 1942: Sylvia Esty, an 8-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, puts her hand over her heart but refuses to say the words of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Garrison School in West Concord. She says God has forbidden her to pledge allegiance to flag and country. Concord’s school board says it may have to expel her.
Jan. 20, 2002: A youth survey suggests there may be a growing number of New Hampshire teenagers who are suicidal, the Monitor reports. The 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, taken by 1,303 teenagers across the state showed 16.6 percent of the students surveyed said they “actually attempted suicide one or more times during the past 12 months.” In the last survey, in 1999, 7.7 percent of the students responding said “yes” to the same question.
Jan. 20, 1798: Concord’s first accidental fire is recorded at 10 p.m. in David George’s hat shop on North Main Street. “Let this, fellow citizens, excite everyone to vigilance,” writes the Concord Mirrour. “Query – would it not be a good plan for every man to keep a good ladder and one or two proper fire buckets always ready?”
Jan. 20, 1994: The temperature in Concord drops to 28 below zero, a record for the date.
Jan. 20, 1798: Fire breaks out near a hatter’s shop on Concord’s North Main Street, endangering the Carrigains’ store next door. Townspeople rush to the rescue. “By their assiduous exertions and regular procedure, together with the assistance of some ladies, they happily extinguished the destructive element with little damage except to the building,” the weekly Mirrour reports.
Jan. 20, 1823: Rebecca Long, 36, dies in Concord. The cause: poisoning by white lead, accidentally mixed in the sugar used by the family.
Jan. 21, 1857: A choral concert celebrates the opening of the new city hall and county building on the site of the current Merrimack County Courthouse.
Jan. 21, 1990: The new Concord Monitor building is dedicated off Sewalls Falls Road. The paper and predecessors to which it can trace its roots have been published in downtown Concord since 1808.
