May 9, 1944: The woman who played the title role in Cover Girl, the current feature at the Capitol Theater, is living on Court Street in Concord. She is Susann Foster, a blonde who stands 5-foot-8 in high heels. Foster’s husband, Private Ralph Foster, was a flight instructor at Concord Airport but has been reassigned to the Midwest. Susann Foster stayed behind temporarily to see through her pregnancy. She is due in two weeks. The Monitor reports that Foster “doubts she’ll ever return to modeling, believing motherhood to be a far more important career.”
May 9, 2003: Two Weare police officers who were accused of gate-crashing their way into the Hopkinton State Fair last summer are cleared of all charges in Concord District Court. The state fails to prove that Sgt. James Carney and Officer Hicham Geha each committed a $12 theft by attending the fair in August, Judge John Yazinski says just before he acquits the officers.
May 10, 1847: Residents of Concord gather to honor Franklin Pierce after he is commissioned brigadier general for the war with Mexico. The ladies of the town present Pierce with a sword. The men have purchased a fine horse for him. When the horse suddenly dies, William Walker, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, sells the men his black horse, which is given to Pierce.
May 10, 1943: The state announces that liquor will now be among the commodities subject to war rationing. The limit: two quarts per person per day.
May 11, 1900: Norris Cotton is born. Cotton will become editor of the Granite Monthly and a lawyer in Concord before his political career. He will serve numerous terms in the New Hampshire House, including one as speaker, then go to Washington as a congressman (1947-54) and senator (1954-75).
May 11, 1987: The Concord City Council agrees to spend $10.7 million on a new public works complex on North State Street. The official name will be the Combined Operations and Maintenance Facility, but even before it’s built, a nickname takes hold: Garage Mahal.
May 11, 2000: Concord schools Superintendent Curt Sokness announces he will serve the final year of his contract as principal of Walker School. He will fill in for the current principal, Clint Cogswell, who will be on sabbatical. Assistant Superintendent Chris Rath will take over for Sokness.
May 12, 1903: In a referendum, voters in Concord and New Hampshire’s other cities approve the licensing of liquor sales. Prohibition, honored in the breach, has been in effect since 1855, but the manufacture of spirits is permitted. The licensing referendum passes in 60 towns, but 144 others vote to stay dry. Voter turnout is 75 percent.
May 12, 1944: At their annual convention in Concord, Methodist clergymen follow the lead of Rev. J. Lester Hankins of Dover in voting 32-25 in favor of a pacifist platform. Among the tenets: opposition to the draft and the inclusion of conscientious objectors in the definition of those serving their country.
May 12, 2003: The Concord City Council continues its green-tinged track record when it approves a plan to conserve 28 acres of land near Walker State Forest. The decision comes two weeks after a lengthy debate over whether the city should encourage housing developments or preservation projects deadlocked the council and left a group of tree-loving neighbors wondering what to do next.
May 13, 1726: A group of Massachusetts colonists with a royal land grant arrive to settle Penny Cook. They find Judge Sewall, the first white settler, living on his 500-acre tract on the east side of the Merrimack.
May 13, 2002: In an effort to entice its sophomores to perform better on the state’s standardized tests, Concord High School offers the incentives of bagels, apple pie and candy bars, as well as entry into a lottery for more than $1,200 in prizes and gift certificates donated by downtown merchants. “They pretty much bribed us to do well,” says Meagan Jameson, 17.
May 14, 1726: Having made camp near the Merrimack River the night before, a surveying party of 34 men from Haverhill, Mass., fans out in the fields and woods of what will one day be Concord.
May 14, 1977: Two convicted murderers escape from the state prison. They are Edgar Clifford Avery Jr., convicted of slaying a Concord woman, and Cleo R. Roy, sentenced to life after pleading guilty to killing a Manchester police officer.
May 15, 1726: At Sugar Ball in East Concord, Enoch Coffin, a Congregationalist minister, preaches at the first Christian service in the future Concord. His congregation is a group of men who have come from Massachusetts Bay Colony to survey the Plantation of Penny Cook.
May 15, 1727: A Congregational church, Concord’s first, is ready for occupancy. It is a 40-by-25-foot log structure at North Main and Chapel streets. The logs are thick enough to be bullet-proof, and the church, though windowless, has port-holes through which to shoot Indians.
May 15, 1908: Unable to keep up with the Concord City Auditorium for live shows, Manager Ben White of White’s Opera House begins showing continuous motion pictures and illustrated songs every day but Sunday. Admission is a dime for adults a nickel for children. The songs are by Fred Rushlow. This venture will prove an immense success.
May 15, 1979: Speaking to the Concord Rotary, presidential candidate Bob Dole quips: “I don’t belong to any organized group. I’m a Republican.”
May 15, 1983: Auditions for an amateur production of Annie draw 23 little girls to Concord’s Phenix Theatre. “You need not be afraid. None of us can sing so whatever you can do will be fine,” says producer Norman Leger.
May 15, 2003: Merrimack Valley High school is named the 2003 New Hampshire High School Representative of Excellence by the New Hampshire Excellence in Education Awards Program (the “ED”ies for short). Speaking at a school assembly, Principal Pam Burke says, “This has got to be the most wonderful day in my professional career. You kids, year after year, are the reason we’re here. We’ve always been so proud of you. I’m just so glad the entire state knows who you are.”
