Aug. 28, 1728: John Stark is born in a cabin in Londonderry. He will grow up to fight with Rogers’ Rangers in the French and Indian War, become the hero of Bennington during the American Revolution and, in an 1809 letter greeting veterans of Bennington, pen the words “Live Free or Die.”
Aug. 28, 1988: New Hampshire Republican Sen. Gordon Humphrey and Rep. Bob Smith ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review last year’s $12,100 congressional pay raise. A 1985 law allows a presidential recommendation for a pay raise to take effect within 30 days unless both houses of Congress reject it. In 1987, Congress rejected the 16 percent raise – one day after the 30-day deadline.
Aug. 28, 1902: President Theodore Roosevelt visits Weirs Beach and speaks to a reunion of Civil War veterans.
Aug. 29, 1900: Workmen erecting electric light poles find two rusted tin boxes buried by a dirt road in Bow. The boxes contain documents stolen from the State House more than five years earlier in a heist that netted $6,000 in cash.
Aug. 29, 1826: In Crawford Notch, an avalanche sweeps the Willey family – mother, father, five children and two servants – to their death. Nathaniel Hawthorne will portray the event in “Twice-Told Tale: The Ambitious Guest.”
Aug. 29, 1814: New Hampshire re-elects Daniel Webster to Congress on an anti-war platform. In a Federalist sweep of the state, Webster’s brother Ezekiel is elected to the state Senate.
Aug. 29, 1862: While ministering to soldiers of the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry at Second Bull Run, Harriet P. Dame of Concord is captured. She is taken to Stonewall Jackson’s headquarters and will be released the next day. As long as the 2nd serves, Dame will be its “angel of mercy,” according to Maj. J.D. Cooper. “Many days,” he will write, “she has stood by the side of our noble, patriotic sons who have gone to their long homes, doing all in her power to alleviate their sufferings, and soothe their sorrows in the dying hour.”
Aug. 29, 1896: Death of Capt. James M. Beede of Meredith, the oldest railroad man in the state. For many years he was also captain of the steamer Lady of the Lake on Lake Winnipesaukee.
Aug. 30, 2003: The police have arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the kidnapping and torture of Barney the poodle, the Monitor reports. The dog was found a week earlier tied and scraped as though he had been dragged. Stephen Hess of Weare was arrested and charged with falsifying evidence. The dog’s owner said the teen is her niece’s fiancé.
Aug. 30, 2002: At a news conference, officials announce that the state has completed its plan to distribute free radiation pills to people living, working, or attending school within 10 miles of the Seabrook and Vermont Yankee nuclear plants.
Aug. 30, 2001: Michael Johnson, Merrimack County’s top prosecutor of nearly two decades, announces he will leave his position to take a job with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he will serve as chief of prosecution.
Aug. 30, 2000: State officials announce that a dead crow found in Manchester was felled by West Nile Virus. This is the state’s first report of the potentially deadly disease, which can be transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.
Aug. 30, 1970: At the Highway Hotel in Concord, the Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pa., honors 10 New Hampshire people for efforts to maintain “the American way.” Among the honorees are Publisher William Loeb and gubernatorial candidate Meldrim Thomson Jr.
Aug. 30, 1862: After a federal draft call for nine-month volunteers, the city of Concord offers a bounty of $100 to any resident who will sign up by Sept. 15.
Aug. 30, 1835: Rioters in Canaan tear down an abolitionist school.
Aug. 30, 1869: Henry F. Hollis is born. He will become a Concord lawyer and, in 1912, the first New Hampshire Democrat in 60 years to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Aug. 30, 1790: A town meeting approves spending 100 pounds to build a “town house” on land near Main and Court streets. The town house will be a meeting place for townspeople and the General Court.
Aug. 30, 1824: Amos Parker, editor of Concord’s weekly Statesman, goes to Boston to invite the Marquis de Lafayette to visit Concord during the Revolutionary War hero’s U.S. tour. Lafayette agrees to come after the dedication of the Bunker Hill Memorial the following June. Parker describes Lafayette as “a dignified personage, in his 60s, grown portly,” wearing buff-colored cotton pants, a swans’-down vest, a blue broadcloth coat with gilt buttons, a beaver top hat and plain shoes.
Aug. 31, 2002: A Massachusetts man and his 15-year-old son are rescued after becoming stranded on a cliff in Crawford Notch. According to authorities, the boy tries to free-climb Frankenstein Cliff without equipment but can’t get any farther after reaching 150 feet. The father tries to climb the cliff to rescue the son but only reaches 90 feet.
Aug. 31, 2001: In a decision that alters the juvenile justice system for some young offenders, the state’s Supreme Court rules that teens have a right to a jury trial if they face jail time. Because of this, judges across the state release a few of these inmates, whose incarcerations are suddenly unconstitutional.
Aug. 31, 1866: The Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, author of a Concord history a decade earlier, is named state historian. He will holds this position for 11 years, during which he will compile 10 volumes of provincial and state papers for publication.
Aug. 31, 1892: The statue of antislavery Sen. John P. Hale is completed outside the State House.
Aug. 31, 1899: For the first time, an automobile climbs Mount Washington. It is a Stanley Steamer. The driver is F.O. Stanley, who designed the car. No bumper stickers are available to mark the feat.
Sept. 1, 1939: Germany attacks Poland. The Concord Monitor’s lead editorial says: “We feel certain that try as hard as we may, we cannot stay out of the war if it is at all prolonged.”
Sept. 2, 2002: Concord police arrest a man they say kidnapped two teenagers at knifepoint at Wal-Mart on Loudon Road. James McLaughlin will be arraigned on two counts of kidnapping, one count of robbery, one count of felon in possession of a deadly weapon, and possession or a dangerous weapon while committing a violent crime.
Sept. 2, 2001: Colleges are taking a more proactive stance against drinking among students, the Monitor reports. Programs – especially for freshmen – designed to educate students about alcohol are rapidly taking the place of sweeping the issue under the carpet among administrators.
Sept. 2, 2000: Franklin’s Jenna Lewis Day will be quite the fete, the Monitor reports. The local Survivor celebrity will answer fans’ questions and sign autographs. In addition, she will receive a silken lilac scarf and a proclamation from the governor.
Sept. 2, 1999: In anticipation of a speech at New England College, John McCain’s staff hangs a black-and-white poster of the presidential candidate in his days as a rugged young naval aviator in Vietnam. McCain, however, insists there’s more to him than his war record. “It gives people a reason to examine you as a candidate,” he says, “but it does not in any way make you qualified in their eyes to be elected.”
Sept. 2, 1947: Plans to install the city’s first parking meters downtown draw the ire of Concord residents. “I will make one pledge. I never will put 10 cents into a meter in order to shop. I will park my car over on Concord Plains and walk in first,” writes Charles H. Nixon in a letter to the editor.
Sept. 2, 1816: From Concord, where he is living in the North End, Samuel F.B. Morse writes to his parents that he is engaged to a local girl, Lucretia Walker. “Never, never was a human being so blest as I am,” he writes.
