Aug. 20, 1948: Lifeguards for Manchester’s municipal swimming pools go on strike, forcing the city to close two pools and leave others unsupervised. The workers are seeking a $5 pay raise from $28 to $33 per week, and have rejected the city’s offer of $2.
Aug. 20, 1853: Jefferson Davis, U.S. secretary of war, arrives in Concord. He dines at the Phenix Hotel, takes a ride through town and talks to residents at the Eagle Hotel. Those who had shaken hands and conversed with him at the informal reception, little thought then what a decade would bring forth and that President Pierce’s cabinet officer would be the president of a Confederacy arrayed in rebellion against the Union, a city history reports.
Aug. 20, 1844: Samuel Jackman, the oldest man in Concord, dies at the age of 96. He was a veteran of the American Revolution.
Aug. 21, 1974: Writing in the Union Leader, William Loeb expresses his disgust for Republican presidential candidate Gerald Ford and his running mate Nelson Rockefeller. “Never in the history of the Republican Party have we had two such lemons in the White House,” he writes.
Aug. 21, 1851: Concord’s downtown is ravaged by the worst fire in its history. The fire starts in the old “Mechanics Home” and spreads through old wooden buildings on the east side of Main Street from Park Street south and past the State House. Lost are the Eagle Coffee House, a drug store, the Merchants Exchange, the Prescott Piano Factory and a host of other stores, offices, sheds and houses. More than 1,000 firefighters joined the futile battle. Witnesses say the glow of the fire could be seen in Francestown and Portsmouth – even Portland, Maine.
Aug. 22, 2003: Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean opens his Concord headquarters, speaking to supporters about the threat of global warming and the need to invest in renewable forms of energy. “I can see Karl Rove cackling and rubbing his hands together over the Birkenstock governor from Vermont right now, but the truth is that this president has allowed us to fall behind in so many areas, and I don’t want to fall behind in this one,” Dean says. “What I want is a president who believes renewable energy is important in this country.”
Aug. 22, 2002: Police officers are credited with saving the life of a newborn found in a backyard in Hampton Beach several hours after she was born. The infant is flown to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where she is in fair condition. A 15-year-old believed to be the mother is also hospitalized.
Aug. 22, 2001: After a surprise rejection from the state’s Health Services Planning and Review Board on Concord Hospital’s proposed cancer treatment center, the hospital vows it will continue efforts to open the center and requests a rehearing. Concord Hospital spokeswoman Pam Puleo says, “Our biggest concert, and greatest disappointment, is for the people we serve and the lack of local access to radiation therapy.”
Aug. 22, 1950: Gov. Adams’ state reorganization program is slowly but surely being put into force, the Monitor reports. 3600 jobs have been taken out of politics. No longer do the governor, council or other state officials have any say about who is hired, fired or promoted. These decisions rest solely with the newly created State Personnel Commission, which is responsible to nobody else, except on appeal.
Aug. 23, 2003: In Massachusetts, former priest and convicted child molester John Geoghan dies after being attacked in prison. Geoghan’s prosecution helped bring scrutiny to New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack for his role in investigating reports of sexual abuse by Boston-area priests.
Aug. 23, 1775: The British warship Scarborough leaves Portsmouth harbor for Boston. On board after eight stormy years as New Hampshire’s royal governor is John Wentworth. Shortly after his departure, a mob will demolish Fort William and Mary, which guards the harbor. Wentworth’s departure signals the end of colonial rule in New Hampshire.
Aug. 24, 1955: New Hampshire’s highway death record is the worst in the nation for the first half of this year, the Monitor reports. Sixty-two people were killed, a 59% increase from the same months the previous year.
