Jan. 18, 2002: A frustrated House majority declared that landmark court rulings requiring the state to pay for schools were wrong, the Monitor reports. While the resolution has no legal effect, supporters see it as a first step to taking back control over school funding from the state Supreme Court.
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, 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% 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% 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, 1968: New Hampshire loses its 100th military man in the Vietnam War. He is Eliot Guild of Keene, a 21-year-old Marine medical corpsman.
Jan. 21, 2002: James Ewing, co-owner of The Keene Sentinel for nearly four decades, dies at the age of 85. During his tenure as publisher, the newspaper successfully campaigned for a wide range of causes including land-use planning, freedom of information and public services for the needy. After leaving day-to-day newspapering in the mid-1980s, he helped launch the International Center for Journalists, a Washington-based training institute for journalists around the world.
Jan. 21, 1990: The new Concord Monitor building is dedicated off Sewalls Falls Road. In April, the staff will move into the building. The paper and predecessors to which it can trace its roots have been published in downtown Concord since 1808.
Jan. 22, 1942: The Monitor reports that rather than wait for the draft, 32 men have enlisted at the Concord recruiting office for the duration of the war. Eleven are from Concord. Most have signed up for the air corps and been sent to Missouri to train.
Jan. 22, 1811: A cow belonging to Abner Farnum Jr. of Concord gives birth to a two-headed calf.
Jan 22, 1997: On her way to a rally commemorating the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, newly elected Gov. Jeanne Shaheen wades through a dozen protesters who yell “Shame on you” and wave pictures of aborted fetuses. “It’s very important, particularly these days when there’s a new rash of clinic violence, for each of us to stand up and be counted and not be intimidated by people who would deny women the right to make our own decisions about our future,” she says.
Jan. 23, 2002: Snowmobilers, fishermen, hunter, hikers and wildlife watchers who revel in North Country solitude can relax, the Monitor reports. It appears that the vast, privately owned forest covering the top of New Hampshire will be protected for public recreation and logging forever. In an unusual show of bipartisan support, lawmakers lined up yesterday in favor of a $10 million state bond to secure public access to the land for perpetuity.
