Jan. 9, 2001
Skateboarders have less than a month to carve up the streets of Suncook, the Monitor reports. After that, they risk a fine for violating a ban just imposed by the Pembroke selectmen.
Jan. 9, 1766
A crowd goes to the Portsmouth home of George Meserve, who signed as the royal Stamp Act agent for New Hampshire the previous September. There is a rumor afoot that Meserve will begin collecting taxes under the act. He meets the crowd at the door and resigns again. The crowd impales his royal commission on a sword, marches it to the harbor, and sends it back to England.
Jan. 9, 1944
Miss Grace Blanchard, Concord’s retired librarian of 40 years, dies. In her will, she leaves $40,000 in public bequests, including $25,000 to the library.
Jan. 9, 1997
Jeanne Shaheen is inaugurated, becoming New Hampshire’s first woman governor.
Jan. 10, 2003
A fire destroys a historic barn in Hopkinton. It burns through several connected buildings, coming close to but not igniting the property’s 1775-era house.
Jan. 10, 1942
City aldermen approve a $400,000 expansion of Concord Airport. The city appropriation for the project is $30,000.
Jan. 10, 1964
Paul Grindle, David Goldberg, Sally Saltonstall, and Caroline Williams arrive in Concord from Boston. The four young people, all political amateurs, pay $400 to rent an empty storefront across from the State House for two months. They order a telephone and borrow furniture and folding chairs from state GOP headquarters.
Jan. 10, 1985
Gov. John Sununu announces his support of plans to change the state’s method of execution from hanging to lethal injection. “If you’re going to have a death penalty that has some credibility, you have to have it in a form that is acceptable to the public,” he says. The Legislature will concur.
Jan. 11, 2002
Dozens of residents from small towns between Concord and the Seacoast are expected to meet in Barrington with state officials to review options for stopping, or scaling back, what could be the state’s largest water-bottling operation. USA Springs, a Pelham-based company, hopes to construct a water-bottling plant on 100 acres it owns on the Barrington/Nottingham town line.
Jan. 11, 2000
Carlton Fisk, who grew up in Charlestown and was a three-sport star at the town’s high school, is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Jan. 11, 1987
The temperature falls to minus-23 degrees, coldest in the nation on this day.
Jan. 11, 1993
A fire forces nine nuns out of the Carmelite monastery on Pleasant Street in Concord.
Jan. 12, 2002
Hooksett has been growing quickly for decades, but plans now in the works could increase the number of homes there by 49%, the Monitor reports. It’s a looming boom that illustrates a regional trend: Growth from metropolitan Boston is extending farther north into New Hampshire.
Jan. 12, 2001
Pembroke Academy has received a $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Monitor reports. The school plans to use the money to establish summer school and after-school programs, as well as enrichment programs for Pembroke and Allenstown residents of all ages.
Jan. 12, 1989
Concord Sen. Susan McLane proposes a ban on jet skis on every lake in the state. “A jet ski is like a noisy buzz saw going in mindless circles,” she says. “It’s driving people crazy. This is a problem that isn’t going to go away.” No overall ban is imposed. Instead, lakes are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Jan. 12, 1952
The Monitor reports on plans to make Main and State streets one way, with one going north and the other going south. The idea is to relieve traffic congestion. (It’s never approved.)
Jan. 12, 1942
New Hampshire’s labor unions ban strikes and lockouts for the duration of the war.
Jan. 13, 1908
Edwin Bedee dies in Plymouth just five days after his 75th birthday. Bedee was in Ford’s Theater the night President Lincoln was shot. He rushed into the president’s box and held Lincoln’s head while a surgeon looked for the wound.
Jan. 13, 1991
With placards proclaiming “No Blood for Oil” and other messages, a peace group marches from the State House through the snowbanked streets of downtown Concord in protest of the threat of war with Iraq.
Jan. 13, 1968
Marine Lt. Alfred Russ, 24, of Hancock, dies of wounds in Quang Tri Province. He is the 99th serviceman from New Hampshire to die during the Vietnam War.
