June 25, 1959: State Sen. James Cleveland uses political savvy to defeat Gov. Wesley Powell’s House Bill 348, a power grab intended to make several state departments answerable to the governor and cut the state workforce by hundreds. The Senate is deadlocked 12-12 on the bill, but with one opponent absent, Powell’s forces try to jam it through. Cleveland calls for a brief recess. He and the rest of the opponents disappear, and the sergeant-at-arms can’t find them. Without a quorum, the Senate cannot vote, and the bill dies.
June 25, 1975: Reversing a position from two years earlier, Gov. Mel Thomson tells the Executive Council he no longer objects to the state buying its road salt from Chile. “Chile is no longer communist. I have no objection to the salt coming from Chile now,” the governor says.
June 25, 2003: The Penacook Historical Society holds an open house for the Rolfe barn, a 200-year-old building that the group had fought to save for months. The event gives many supporters their first peek at the property.
June 26, 1941: With Joe DiMaggio hitless in three at-bats and the Yankees up for the final time, third baseman Red Rolfe of Concord works the opposing pitcher for a walk to get DiMaggio one last try. DiMaggio doubles Rolfe home to keep his hitting streak alive at 38.
June 26, 1996: Concord gadfly and word-spinner David Wells dies.
June 26, 2003: Matt Bonner, who led the Concord High basketball team to three straight state championships before evolving into a star at the University of Florida, realizes a lifelong dream when he’s selected in the NBA Draft. Initially drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the second round, he’s soon traded to the Toronto Raptors.
June 27, 2000: The New Hampshire House fails to override Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s veto of a bill calling for the repeal the state’s death penalty. Roughly the same number of representatives who supported the repeal when the House first voted do so again. This time, however, a two-thirds majority is required to overrule the governor, and abolitionists are unable to meet that threshold.
June 28, 1853: James O. Lyford is born. He will become a journalist and politician and write histories of Concord and Canterbury.
June 28, 2003: For seven years, 17-year-olds have been adults in the eyes of the criminal justice system, the Monitor reports. Next week, a task force appointed by the Legislature will recommend raising the age back to 18, making 17-year-olds juveniles once again. The change would mean that crimes committed by 17-year-olds would no longer become part of their adult criminal records.
June 29, 1833: Vice President Martin Van Buren, in Concord with the presidential party, dines with Franklin Pierce and others at the home of Zebina Lincoln, part owner of a dry goods establishment and soon to be proprietor of the Eagle Coffee House.
June 29, 1864: The Legislature meets to hear Manchester’s case that it should displace Concord as New Hampshire’s capital. Speaking in Concord’s defense, John George wins the day by arguing that in addition to lagging behind Concord in railroad development, Manchester has a population that is “not steady and sober. Passions, excitements and tumults are likely to be generated at any time.”
June 29, 1988: The Concord Planning Board approves construction of the Steeplegate Mall on Loudon Road. Downtown merchants, wary of Manchester’s experience, have the jitters.
June 29, 2000: Concord’s Sunnycrest Farms is up for sale, the Monitor reports. A fund-raising effort to save the apple orchard from development will soon get under way.
June 29, 2003: The State Employees Association has filed an unfair labor practice charge, claiming Gov. Craig Benson deliberately held up negotiations by not presenting the Executive Council with a fact-finder’s report on the disputed parts of the contract, the Monitor reports.
June 30, 1855: Benjamin Brown French writes to his old friend and fellow New Hampshireman, President Franklin Pierce, that their party has “lost its devotion to democratic principles.” Like many old Democrats, French has begun his drift toward an anti-slavery position and the new Republican Party. He will become an activist for Abraham Lincoln and land a job in the Lincoln White House.
June 30, 1944: More than three weeks after D-Day, dreaded telegrams reach Concord homes bringing news of casualties in the Allied invasion of Europe. They include a paratrooper and an Army lieutenant who are both missing and Lt. Guy Gowen, a 24-year-old infantry patrol leader who had reached Normandy by glider before being killed in action. Gowen had been a two-sport star at Concord High, graduating in 1937 and going on to UNH.
June 30, 1990: Hundreds – and over ensuing days thousands – of people come to pay their respects at the Moving Wall during its stop at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. The wall is a portable replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
July 1, 1925: The Granite Monthly complains about the proliferation of gas stations in the state. “If stations continue to multiply in the future as they have in the past, there will never be any problem of lighting the Daniel Webster Highway. It will soon be the best-lighted boulevard in the state, for every station is well-lighted to attract the attention of the traveler.”
July 1, 2003: Attorney General Peter Heed says prison officials failed to investigate or react to clues that, in hindsight, foretold of last month’s prison break by three men at the state prison in Concord. A tip from another inmate and a pair of bolt cutters found thrown over a prison fence were among the clues that officials failed to react to, Heed says.
