Oct. 18, 1965: Gov. John King urges state lawmakers to approve tearing down a 70-year-old tower atop the state library at the corner of Park and North State streets. He calls it “an architectural monstrosity.”
Oct. 18, 1988: Attorney Ray D'Amante announces the name of Concord's soon-to-be-built mall: Steeplegate. Concord, he says, is a city of steeples and they will be incorporated into the mall as a prominent design feature.
Oct. 18, 2001: Nearly 100 people attend a Concord hearing on a proposed zoning ordinance. Residents discuss proposed development in the Penacook Lake watershed and floodplain concerns about commercial development in Penacook.
Oct. 19, 1920: Weeks before the election, Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio, the Democratic presidential nominee, speaks from a platform beneath the Lafayette elm on the State House lawn. Cox, a chief proponent of the League of Nations, assails Warren G. Harding, the Republican nominee, for claiming that France opposes the League.
“The facts justify the conclusion that Sen. Harding has stupidly though deliberately attempted to deceive the people of the United States,” Cox says. He blames the Senate for politicizing the issue, saying that until recently Americans saw the League of Nations as “the voice of God speaking to the consciences of the world.” With the Monitor's support, Harding will win the election, easily carrying Concord and New Hampshire.
Oct. 19, 2002: Franklin Pierce Law Center holds the fifth annual Bruce E. Friedman Community Service Day in honor of the late professor. More than 90 students, professors and family members volunteer at the school and throughout the community.
Oct. 20, 1814: The first boat of the Merrimack Boating Co., later the Boston & Concord Boating Co., arrives in Concord. Northbound commercial cargo will include sugar, molasses, rum and finished goods. The boats will carry lumber, firewood, potash (for soap) and granite south to Quincy Market.
Oct. 20, 1908: Forest fires all around Concord fill the streets with smoke. Farmers' wells are running dry. The temperature rises to 85 degrees.
Oct. 20, 1989: The 57-year-old Johnny Cash fills the Capitol Theatre in Concord for two performances. His humble demeanor and his repertory, heavy on gospel, trains, fisticuffs, simple justice and simple pieties, bring down the house.
Oct. 20, 2000: James Hall, convicted of second-degree murder for killing his mother, receives a prison sentence of 30 years to life. In April 1999 he strangled Joan Hall, 77, in the Concord apartment they had shared for about a year.
Oct. 21, 2000: Hilda Sargent, 97, attends the opening ceremony for Bow's newly expanded Baker Free Library. The town's oldest resident, Sargent says she still reads every day and actually had to put down a novel when her ride came to take her to the event.
Oct. 21, 2002: Concord City councilors vote to change Concord's housing policy to support construction of affordable housing projects as well as the rehabilitation of available units. Councilor Bill McGonagle says, “I think approval of this amendment this evening is one small step in the right direction.”
Oct. 22, 1844: The Millerites, one of many cults and sects that have gained popularity in New Hampshire in recent years, believe that the world will end on this date. It doesn't.
Oct. 22, 2003: Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich demonstrates the emergency drills he had to do as a student during the Cold War in front of 500 students at Concord High. “So some of us had nightmares as kids, he says. “We had dreams that the missiles were coming in while we were at recess.”
Oct. 22, 1965: J. Herbert Quinn, candidate for mayor of Concord, insists that he is a man of the people. “Contrary to the many rumors which have been circulating throughout the city, I have no millionaires or near-millionaires, either in or out of the city, contributing to my campaign,” he says. Quinn will eventually be elected – and then impeached.
Oct. 23, 1890: A statue of John Stark is dedicated outside the State House.
Oct. 23, 2001: Former vice president Al Gore meets with several Concord-area Democrats at the Barley House in Concord. During his visit to the state, he also speaks with out-of-work mill workers in Berlin and attends a concert by Voices From the Heart, a 200-woman choir, in Portsmouth.
Oct. 24, 1852: News of Daniel Webster's death at Marshfield, Mass., reaches Concord at 2:38 p.m. Bells toll and flags are lowered to half-staff. At a memorial service the next day Gen. Franklin Pierce, just days before his election to the presidency, will be the principal speaker. Of Webster, Pierce will say: “The great heart of the nation throbs heavily at his grave.”
Oct. 24, 2002: Democratic candidate Mark Fernald uses his final debate against Republican Craig Benson, broadcast live on WMUR, to make a last stand for the income tax. “We have a state to run, we have children to educate, and it costs money, and we should do it in a way that's fair,” Fernald says. “I don't think a property tax is fair.”
