Feb. 15, 2002: The Diocese of Manchester releases the names of 14 priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct with children between 1963 and 1987.
Feb. 15, 1911: A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Weeks of Massachusetts, a New Hampshire native, calls for federal purchase of forest lands. The Weeks Act will lead to the designation of the White Mountain National Forest.
Feb. 15, 1943: As a war measure, Concord’s Mayor Charles McKee recommends that stoplights be eliminated at city intersections. Posting stop signs in their places will conserve gasoline, he says.
Feb. 16, 2002: In Concord, a blaze that brings the city’s entire firefighting fleet to Main Street damages the two brick buildings that house Granite Bank and Eye 2 Eye Gallery. Nobody is hurt.
Feb. 16, 1812: Henry Wilson is born in Farmington. He will serve as vice president to Ulysses S. Grant.
Feb. 16, 1943: The temperature falls to 37 below zero at 8:30 a.m., the coldest temperature ever measured in Concord. The record had been 35 below, set Jan. 8, 1878.
Feb. 17, 2000: A five-alarm fire in downtown Pittsfield destroys two apartment buildings, leaving up to 15 people homeless. Frigid temperatures result in frozen hydrants and hoses. At one point, a power line snaps and hits a truck, knocking off a firefighter who was manning a hose.
Feb. 17, 1943: The low temperature in Concord is 18 below zero, but that’s a big improvement! It was 37 below the day before.
Feb. 18, 2000: New Hampshire native Laurence Craigie will be among four air and space pioneers inducted this year into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the Monitor reports. Born in Concord, Craigie earned his Army Air Service wings in 1924 and went on to hold key positions in aircraft testing and development. He saw combat duty in World War II and retired from a NATO command in 1955 as a lieutenant general. He died in 1994.
Feb. 18, 1774: The New Hampshire Gazette reports on a meeting of the Matrons of Liberty at the house of Susanna Spindle in Portsmouth. The women question the motives of those trying to stop the importation of tea from Great Britain. Their resolution states: “That the Merchants under the pretence of guarding our Liberties, prevented the landing of the East India Company’s Tea; and at the same Time sell their own at such an extravagant Price, make it evident it is not our Interest; but their own private Gain they are pursuing.”
Feb. 18, 1988: Syndicated columnists Jack Germond and Jules Whitcover stick up for the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary: “The significant asset of the Iowa-New Hampshire parlay is that the states are indeed small enough and campaigning inexpensive enough so that any candidate can win a hearing and expose his personal qualities, for better or for worse, to a large chunk of the electorate. Moreover, the voters in both states have become increasingly involved and increasingly sophisticated as they have come to recognize their own importance.”
Feb. 18, 1869: Fire destroys Concord’s Columbian Hotel.
Feb. 19, 1965: Television personality Jack Paar films a show in Gilmanton. He tells school board member Mrs. Harold Bryant he wanted to do a show about “a small, friendly New England Town.” Paar and his seven-man crew eat dinner at Bryant’s home.
Feb. 20, 2002: Half and Susanne Zantop, the married Dartmouth College professors butchered in their home a year ago were the fifth random targets of their teenage killers, an unsealed indictment charges. Robert Tulloch and James Parker were unsuccessful at four other homes planning to talk their way in, get the residents’ ATM cards and PINs and murder them, before they went to the Zantops, the indictment says.
Feb. 20, 2001: World-renowned environmentalist and Dartmouth College professor Donella Meadows dies at age 59 of bacterial meningitis. A regular contributor to New Hampshire newspapers, Meadows first made her mark in 1972 with the publication of The Limits to Growth, considered a seminal work in the field of environmental analysis.
Feb. 20, 1973: New Hampshire officials approve the state’s first “instant sweepstakes,” in which players will buy a 50-cent lottery ticket, remove a seal and know instantly if they have won. The game is aimed at tourists. Top prize will be $100.
Feb. 20, 1915: Thomas J. McIntyre is born in Laconia. He will serve in many public roles in the city, including mayor in 1949-51, and later serve 16 years in the U.S. Senate.
February 21, 1848 – While walking through the U.S. Capitol, New Hampshireman Benjamin Brown French, the former House clerk, peers into the speaker’s offices and sees Rep. John Quincy Adams lying “perfectly unconscious.” The former president has had a stroke. “I shall probably never look upon him again in life,” French writes. Adams will die two days later.
