Jan. 25, 2002: Area lawmakers approve $24.2 million worth of renovations and additions to the Merrimack County jail, wrapping up years of discussion on whether and how much county taxpayers should pay to reduce the facility’s crowding.
Jan. 25, 2000: Concord receives nearly 9 inches of snow, hardly an extraordinary occurrence for late January; however, it is the first significant snowstorm of the season, and for that to come in late January is unusual.
Jan. 25, 1944: The state announces the deer kill in last fall’s open season at 5,137 and says it expects trappers to have a banner season on beaver in March. Pelts are expected to bring $40 to $60 each.
Jan. 25, 1960: Praising the New Hampshire primary during a speech to the Nashua Rotary Club, Sen. John F. Kennedy says: “The days when presidential candidates – unknown and untested – can be nominated in smoke-filled rooms by political leaders and party bosses have passed forever from the scene.”
Jan. 26, 2003: Nearly 200 people gather outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Manchester to support victims of clergy abuse, organized by New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful and the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors.
Jan. 26, 2001: Lakes Region General Hospital and Franklin Regional Hospital have created a joint pool of nurses who will work in the critical care units of both facilities, the Monitor reports. The move addresses a serious shortage of nurses and presages a full merger that will be announced later in the year.
Jan. 26, 1839: In Concord, rain falls for 24 hours straight. The Merrimack rises 15 feet in 15 hours. Several bridges are destroyed.
Jan. 26, 1984: Webster Bridges, chairman of the state Sweepstakes Commission, brings a sample of the state’s newest instant lottery games to the State House. Gov. John Sununu buys a scratch ticket and promptly wins $2.
Jan. 27, 2003: The Concord City Council votes to take the historic Rolfe barn through eminent domain, stopping Ken Epworth, the barn’s owner, from dismantling the building and selling the parts to an unnamed client. The Penacook Historical Society asked the city to step in so it can use the barn as a museum and community center.
Jan. 27, 1983: Concord native John Bluto makes a brief TV appearance on an episode of “Cheers.” He plays an insurance salesman, a role he played in real life in Concord for more than 10 years.
Jan. 27, 1994: The temperature in Concord falls to 27 below zero, the city’s third record low in eight days.
Jan. 27, 1848: Franklin Pierce returns home to Concord after leading a brigade in the Mexican War. A crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people meet him at the city’s new railroad station. Pierce has been gone eight months. In that time, the Concord town meeting has banned “bowling, saloons and circuses.” Among those present for Pierce’s welcome home is his old friend and Bowdoin College classmate Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Jan. 28, 2003: Twenty victims of a sexually abusive Massachusetts priest and more than 60 of their supporters confront New Hampshire Bishop John McCormack at a meeting in Salem, Mass., and demand repentance.
Jan. 28, 2002: Convicted killer and Monitor columnist Ray Barham, 72, dies from cancer in the state prison infirmary. He was convicted in 1983 of first-degree murder after shooting his estranged wife’s boyfriend, and started writing for the paper’s editorial page in 1987. Editor Mike Pride will remember him by writing, “Ray joked about wanting to win the Pulitzer Prize. He said it was the only way to change the headline on his obituary. In fact, for many years it was his writing, not the killing, that defined him. He could not outlast the sentence he had brought upon himself, but his pen bore him through it.”
Jan. 28, 2001: Dartmouth students and other residents of Hanover say they’re in shock after hearing that two of the college’s professors were murdered in their home the day before. It has been 10 years since the last murders in Hanover; in 1991 two female students from Ethiopia were killed with an ax.
Jan. 28, 2000: Mel Bolden, the charismatic portraitist and political activist who became a friend to people of all ages around the Concord area, dies on his 81st birthday. Bolden, whose artistic career spanned six decades, gained particular notoriety for his portraits of Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died on the same day in 1986 in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. One of the portraits hangs in the National Air and Space Museum.
Jan. 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes 72 seconds after liftoff, killing all aboard, including Concord High teacher Christa McAuliffe.
Jan. 28, 1947: Jeanne Shaheen is born. She will direct Gary Hart’s 1984 presidential campaign in New Hampshire, represent the Seacoast in the state Senate and, in 1996, be elected the state’s first woman governor.
Jan. 30, 2002: Here’s a good reason to watch more television and eat more candy, the Monitor reports. Concord native Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone is now appearing in a Snickers ad demonstrating the dangers of going too long without chocolate.
Jan. 30, 2000: As many as 5,000 of the names on Concord’s voter rolls shouldn’t be there, the Monitor reports. The extra names include people who have moved away or died, as well as people who are listed more than once. “We have about 24,000 registered voters,” City Clerk Sharon Dery says, “but I think we’re closer to having about 19,000.”
Jan. 31, 1986: On a frigid night, thousands gather in the State House plaza for a memorial service for Christa McAuliffe. “Her teaching has not ceased,” says Rev. Chester Mrowka.
Jan. 31, 1952: The Concord City Council debates plans for the construction of Storrs Street to relieve traffic downtown. There is no name yet for the new street, so it is referred to as Concord’s “Baby Bypass.”
