Nov. 8, 1844: The local Columbian artillery turns out on Sand Hill in Concord to fire off a salute to the election of James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. As the cannon is being loaded, an explosion badly injures John L. Haynes, an officer in the unit. The explosion blows off Haynes's left arm and shatters the bones in his right arm.
Nov. 8, 1983: On his eighth try, longtime city gadfly Bob Schweiker is elected to the Concord School Board. Even he is surprised by the vote. “I really expected to lose,” he says.
Nov. 8, 1991: In an interview with the Monitor, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton says that as president he would support a middleclass tax cut.
“To correct an imbalance hardly constitutes class warfare,” he says, adding that he would pay for the cut by raising taxes on the wealthy or decreasing the defense budget.
Nov. 9, 1869: Josiah L. Pike, slayer of an old couple in Hampton Falls, is hanged – the first person executed in New Hampshire since colonial times. In the days leading up to his death, ministers' wives and daughters brought him flowers, sang to him and held his hands. An observer describes Pike's final days as “a surge of sentimental gush that scandalized the state and aroused the stinging sarcasm of Mark Twain.” Afterward, there is a change in prison management, and “murderers have not since been allowed ovations there.”
Nov. 9, 2002: The Concord High girls' cross country team, already owners of the Class L and State Meet titles, adds a mud-caked New England championship to its cache in Portland, Maine.
Nov. 9, 2003: Half the congregation walks out of the service at Church of the Redeemer to protest the removal of the Rev. Donald Wilson. Until three days ago, when Bishop Douglas Theuner, leader of the state'' Episcopal diocese, dismissed him, Wilson served as the parish's priest. The protestors, like Wilson, oppose the consecration of Gene Robinson as the state's next bishop, and the first openly gay bishop in the church's history.
Nov. 10, 1995: The refurbished Capitol Center for the Arts reopens on South Main Street. The opening show features folkies John Sebastian, Jonathan Edwards, Janis Ian and New Hampshire's own Tom Rush.
Nov. 10, 2003: The Concord City Council votes to put an automated trash plan on hold until exact cost estimates are available.
Nov. 11, 1874: Meeting in Concord's Eagle Hall, a crowd of 100 women form the New Hampshire Women's Temperance League. The first president is Mrs. Nathaniel White of Concord.
Nov. 11, 1909: The last major branch of Concord's trolley system opens. The 1.55-mile route will be known as the Sunset Loop. It runs up Centre Street from Main to Washington, then White, then on to Franklin Street and back to Main. The city's trolleys are serving 1.2 million passengers a year.
Nov. 11, 1975: Gov. Mel Thomson makes a surprise visit to the state prison to sample the food after the prisoners stage a hunger strike over the quality of prison chow and other issues.
His judgment: “We don't have anything better than this at the Bridges House.” His wife, Gale, insists she's not insulted.
Nov. 11, 1965: The Douglas N. Everett Arena opens in Concord.
Nov. 12, 1941: After spending three days in the country with Winston Churchill, John G. Winant of Concord, U.S. ambassador to Britain, writes a five-page memo to Franklin D. Roosevelt outlining three scenarios Churchill has posed.
The worst: Japan enters the war against Britain, but the United States stays out. Better: Neither country enters the war. Best: The United States enters the war, but Japan doesn't. Less than a month later, Pearl Harbor will put a fourth scenario into effect.
Nov. 12, 2000: Concord High routs longtime nemesis Londonderry, 53-8, advancing to the state Division I football championship. The win ends a streak of lopsided defeats the Tide had recently suffered at the hands of Londonderry.
Concord will go on to win the state title in equally convincing fashion, defeating Manchester Central, 38-0.
Nov. 12, 2002: In a meeting with Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Fish and Game Department Director Wayne Vetter, State Attorney General Philip McLaughlin recommends that the governor and Executive Council fire Vetter over sexual harassment allegations. “I have concluded that Mr. Vetter had engaged in behavior which demonstrates that he is unfit to perform his duties,” McLaughlin wrote in a petition to Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and the council.
Nov. 12, 2003: Concord's Luke Bonner, a senior and basketball star at Trinity High School in Manchester, signs his national letter of intent to play for West Virginia.
Nov. 13, 1990: Two reporters for the Los Angeles Times report that former governor John Sununu's job – chief of staff to President Bush – is in jeopardy.
“Friends are telling Bush that Sununu is irritating some of the president's most loyal supporters, shouting at them and insulting them,” the paper reports. “Other sources say that his outbursts at mid-level staffers in the White House are squelching their initiative.”
Nov. 13, 2001: Concord City Manager Duncan Ballantyne outlines two options for dealing with the Sears block project, the city's biggest and most important project in limbo. The city can meet with Hodges Development Corp. or they can proceed with demolition.
Nov. 14, 1861: A fire at Main and School streets, the fourth major fire of the year in downtown Concord, destroys a harness factory, a shoe store, the gas-light company offices and homes.
Nov. 14, 1963: Visiting Concord, Mrs. Eddy M. Peterson, assistant chairman of the Republican National Committee, says she is excited about the prospect of Sen. Margaret Chase Smith running for president. Nevertheless, Peterson adds, “I don't think the women of America are ready to see a woman candidate for president yet. I think the women are even less ready than the men.”
