Sept. 15, 1860: Concord celebrates the opening of Auburn Street. Several hundred residents join in a carriage procession, led by the Concord Cornet Band, from the Eagle hotel, up Centre Street to Auburn. Two large flags suspended across the new street draw hearty salutes. The march continues to Little Pond Road. One speaker says the new road suggests indications of our progress in civilization.
Sept. 15, 1983: WJYY radio in Concord takes to the airwaves for the first time. Politicians express delight at the new media outlet. “The more the better,” says Democrat Chris Spirou. “Someone might turn the dial and hear Chris Spirou talking!”
Sept. 15, 2003: The Concord City Council approves adding several traffic-calming devices to Broadway, in the area near Rollins Park. Those devices include medians, a traffic island and curb protrusions (also known as bump-outs) that councilors hope will force drivers to slow down.
Sept. 16, 1820: John George of Concord has raised a radish weighing 3 pounds ½ ounce and measuring 13¾ inches in diameter.
Sept. 16, 1977: Gov. Meldrim Thomson denies any involvement with a picture of a badly burned child which accompanied a letter he wrote calling for the removal of UN Ambassador Andrew Young. The letter, written by Thomson in his capacity as chairman of the National Conservative Caucus, solicited donations to push for Young’s ouster. It was accompanied by a photograph of the badly burned child, identifying the child as a victim of the black power movement Young supports.
Sept. 16, 2003: The Bishop Brady girls’ soccer team earns its first victory of the season with a 3-1 decision against Kearsarge.
Sept. 17, 1847: With 85 recruits for the 9th Regiment, Lieutenant Charles F. Low, son of Concord’s renowned General Joseph Low, sails for Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the seat of war.
Sept. 17, 1973: The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee rejects a telegram from New Hampshire Gov. Mel Thomson urging members to halt their hearings.
Sept. 18, 1679: King Charles II ordains that as of Jan. 1, 1680, New Hampshire will have its own government. He names John Cutt, a wealthy Portsmouth merchant, the first governor.
Sept. 18, 1987: In Concord, Elizabeth Dole defends her decision to quit her job as U.S. transportation secretary to help her husband, U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, run for president. “This is my choice,” she says. “I’m not going to be just out there standing by Bob’s side and smiling. We’re talking about something with serious implications. We’re talking about the leader of the free world.”
Sept. 18, 1990: Steven McAuliffe testifies on behalf of Supreme Court nominee David Souter before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: “In David Souter’s attorney general’s office we sought the right answer, not the expedient answer – and never the political answer,” McAuliffe says.
Sept. 19, 1983: In a speech to health care professionals, Gov. John Sununu loses his temper, exhorting them to be less selfish. “Find me a system where you’re less concerned about covering your asses and more about caring for the patient, he says after two doctors cite the risk of malpractice claims as a major cause of soaring health care costs.
Sept. 19, 1991: In a telephone interview with the Monitor, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton says: “I can win New Hampshire.”
Sept. 19, 2001: Concord Planning Board approves the renovation of the Riverbend Community Mental Health’s building on North State Street The building is the former home of the Concord Monitor and was donated to the agency in 1999. The project will involve tearing down a 1969 addition that housed the newspaper’s printing press.
Sept. 20, 1992: The first Sunday Monitor is published.
Sept. 20, 2002: State and federal officials approve a plan that allows the Concord Municipal Airport to reconstruct a 3,200-foot runway and make other improvements while protecting the endangered Karner blue butterfly.
Sept. 21, 1983: Officials announce that Rumford Press will close at the end of the year, putting 400 Concord employees out of work. “It’s a phenomenal shock to them,” says Charlie Stott of the AFL-CUIO.
Mayor David Coeyman describes the impact on the city: “In a community interested in revitalization, this is not necessarily the kind of opponent we seek. Concord has not , since the railroad left Concord, had to deal with a major employer closing its doors.”
Sept. 21, 1846 – Lt. Joseph H. Potter of Concord, a West Point classmate of Ulysses S. Grant, is wounded while storming a battery with his regiment at the battle of Monterey. He writes: “I was shot through the leg about two inches below the knee – the ball passing between the two bones of the leg and out the opposite side.”
Sept. 21, 1984: Gov. John Sununu welcomes the Public Utilities Commission’s decision to approve a $425 million financing plan for the Seabrook nuclear plant. “Today’s decision, I think, was a good one in the interest of the consumer.”
Sept. 21, 1938: A giant hurricane roars through Concord. One thousand electric poles are downed and Concord Electric’s Sewalls Falls station is flooded. No power can be generated. Eighty percent of the trees in parks, cemeteries and streets are destroyed in what one account describes as “six shrieking hours of wind.”
Sept. 21, 1838: A Mr. Lauriat displays his hot air balloon in Concord. He takes off from the State House plaza, touches down at Shaker Village in Canterbury and then off again to Northfield. He travels 16 miles in 1½ hours – the greatest recorded speed in the area!
Sept. 22, 2003: Police arrest Jeffrey W. Gelinas, 27, of Barrington, for prowling and loitering. Gelinas is also the prime suspect in the “Jack the Snipper” case in Durham, where a man snuck into women’s apartments near the University of New Hampshire and removed their clothes as they slept.
Sept. 22, 2002: Authorities announce that they have issued an arrest warrant charging Joseph Sawtell, 21, of Plaistow, with shooting his girlfriend to death. He is charged with second degree murder.
Sept. 22, 2001: The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests announces the most ambitious statewide conservation project in a century. The plan would protect an additional 1 million acres from development by 2025, nearly doubling the amount of space already set aside in New Hampshire.
Sept. 22, 2000: Defense lawyers for state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Brock take the offensive in the cross-examination of former justice Stephen Thayer. On the fifth day of testimony in Brock’s Senate impeachment trial, his lawyers attempt to portray Thayer as a dishonest, ruined man bent on taking his former colleague down with him.
Sept. 22, 1979 — The Washington Post reports that Gerald Ford will “take a serious look” at running in the 1980 GOP presidential race, partly in response to a Draft Ford movement started in New Hampshire. Still, the former president expresses some skepticism: “We seem to be doing better not being a candidate,” Ford says. “If that’s the case, why change the strategy?”
September 22, 1958 – In a letter accepting the resignation of his scandal-hounded special assistant, Sherman Adams, President Eisenhower writes: “Your performance has been brilliant; the public has been the beneficiary of your unselfish work.”
September 22, 1991 – Refurbished and restored through a community effort, the City Auditorium re-opens with a gala variety show.
Sept. 22, 1849: Asked to change Concord from a town to a city, local voters say no, by a vote of 637 against and 183 in favor. Four years later, they’ll change their mind.
Sept. 22, 1983: In a speech to the Exeter Kiwanis Club, Gov. John Sununu criticizes the zeal of broad-based tax advocates. “I can’t understand why people are running around the stat
