Aug. 9, 1746: A band of 50 to 100 Indians invades Rumford (Concord), but the Indians will be scared off the next morning by 30 armed guards who escort church-goers back to their garrisons.
Aug. 9, 1887: A warehouse is damaged by fire in downtown Concord. “The losses were not heavy, but the fire was a memorable one from the fact that so many boys were injured in jumping from the windows,” the New Hampshire Patriot reports.
Aug. 9, 1903: Omer T. Lassonde is born in Concord. An artist, he will be federal arts director of the WPA in New Hampshire during the Depression. The subjects of his many portraits will include U.S. Sen. Styles Bridges, Gov. John G. Winant and the King of Samoa.
Aug. 10, 1987: Owners of the Ramada Inn on Main Street in Concord get city permission to build over Storrs Street. “The building that is there right now is, quite frankly, ugly. But what you see there now is not what you’ll get,” says lawyer Ray D’Amante. The plan never happens.
Aug. 10, 2003: The Rev. Gene Robinson returns to his home church, St. Paul’s Church in Concord to the hugs and handshakes of hundreds of parishioners and leads the blessing there for the first time since becoming the first openly gay Episcopalian confirmed as a bishop.
Aug. 11, 1746: Thirty or 40 Indians attack a seven-man military party in Rumford (Concord) near the current site of Concord Hospital. The Indians kill five men outright – Samuel and Jonathan Bradley, Obadiah Peters, John Bean and John Lufkin – and strip and mutilate their bodies. Alexander Roberts and William Stickney are captured. The dead are brought to town in a cart and buried immediately.
Aug. 11, 2001: The Monitor reports while speculation about who will run for mayor this fall has been widespread, most people are in agreement on what key issues face Bill Veroneau’s replacement. Economic development and quality of life in Concord seem to be the words on everyone’s lips when asked what’s important to them and what they hope will be important to a new mayor.
Aug. 12, 1952: State officials announce that Concord will be the northern terminus for the new Central New Hampshire Turnpike, a four-lane, $26 million expressway. The road will extend 40 miles from the Massachusetts state line at Tyngsboro to Concord. It will end in a huge traffic circle just south of the city line.
Aug. 12, 1976: Gov. Mel Thomson says he is spending just one full day every two weeks at the State House. He says he spends the other hours campaigning for re-election.
Aug. 12, 2000: The 2000 Babe Ruth 16- to 18-year-old World Series gets under way before a crowd of thousands at Memorial Field in Concord. The tournament field includes two local teams, but neither of them manages a win in its opening game.
Aug. 13, 1852: The tallest flagpole in New Hampshire history is erected in the State House yard, put up to celebrate Franklin Pierce’s nomination by the Democrats to be president. It is 143 feet tall, higher than the State House dome. First flown is an emblem with pictures of Pierce and Sen. Rufus de Vane King of Alabama, his running mate.
Aug. 13, 1979: At the official opening of his presidential campaign headquarters in Concord, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas says he expects Sen. Ted Kennedy – not President Carter – to be the Democratic nominee in 1980. “I might not be able to match some of the Kennedy mystique,” he says, but a Kennedy candidacy “would put me in a good position.”
Aug. 14, 1852: Concord officials vote to build the Sewalls Falls Bridge.
Aug. 14, 1864: One day before the deadline imposed by the Legislature, Concord Mayor Benjamin Gale and other citizens remove a house south of the State House to make way for the building of Capitol Street.
Aug. 15, 1864: Steam whistles and cannons herald the opening of Capitol Street along the south side of the State House grounds. A month earlier, the Legislature voted that if the street was not constructed by this day, they would move the capital.
Aug. 15, 1945: The Monitor’s lead headline reads: “City At A Standstill, Thousands Greet End Of War.”
Aug. 15, 2000: Aurangzeb Khan of Pakistan, believed to be the tallest man alive, spends the night at the Hampton Inn in Bow. On tour with the Sterling and Reid Bros. Circus, Khan stands 8 feet tall and weighs 380 pounds.
Aug. 15, 2002: John Christian Broderick, the son of state Supreme Court Justice John Broderick, agrees to spend up to 15 years in state prison for smashing his father’s face with a guitar last March.
Aug. 15, 2003: Speaking at a rally at the State House plaza in Concord, local environmentalists and public health advocates condemned President Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative and called upon the state’s congressional delegation to oppose it, the Monitor reports.
