Dec. 12, 1991: Campaigning in Concord for her husband, Hillary Clinton tells a reporter how she and Bill Clinton have prepared their daughter Chelsea for the negativity of a presidential campaign: “We’ve told her to be ready for it. We try to take criticism – fair or unfair – seriously but not personally,” Hillary Clinton says.
Dec. 12, 1996: Free agent pitcher Bob Tewksbury of Concord signs with the Minnesota Twins, his sixth major league team. The others: the Yankees, Cubs, Cardinals, Rangers and Padres.
Dec. 12, 1999: Concord residents aren’t bashful about buying Christmas trees, the Monitor reports, even though the city has announced that when the holidays end, it won’t be picking up trees with the regular garbage collection. “Last year, an ice storm froze all the trees to the ground, and we were picking up trees until well into March,” says Vanessa Ghiden of the city’s General Services Department.
Dec. 12, 2000: About 100 Concord residents voice concerns about a retail development proposed for the city’s South End. For two hours, the crowd fires off questions about traffic, the demolition of old buildings and the impact on the neighborhood’s quality of life. In coming months, the proposal will be revised and then rejected by the city planning board.
Dec. 12, 2002: Concord city officials announce that they’re entering into exclusive, six-month negotiations with a Portsmouth developer, Michael Simckik of One Hundred Market Group Ltd., to draw up plans for the Sears Block site. A Concord builder – Tom Avallone’s Cobb Hill Construction – will partner with Simchik for those conversations.
Dec. 13, 1863: Major Edward E. Sturtevant of Concord, a member of the Fifth New Hampshire Infantry and the state’s first Civil War volunteer, is killed leading his regiment in a suicidal assault during the Battle of Fredericksburg. His body is not found. His men assume it is one of many stripped and buried on the field.
Dec. 13, 1999: A move by the Clinton administration to permanently restrict new logging roads on federally owned forests, including the White Mountains, gets an icy reception at two hearings in Concord. Loggers, off-road vehicle enthusiasts and environmentalists all join in the criticism, fearing a reduction in local decision-making power.
Dec. 14, 1955: A train conductor uncoupling an engine from the freight train in Concord gets his foot caught between the rail and guard rail and is then run over by the train and crushed to death, the Coos Republican reports.
Dec. 14, 1984: The six New England governors agree to support a uniform drinking age of 21. Only Rhode Island’s is currently 21. New Hampshire’s is 20.
Dec. 14, 1999: For the first time in more than a decade, the Concord teachers union authorizes its leadership to call for a strike vote if a settlement on a new three-year contract is not reached within the week.
Dec. 14, 2000: About 5 inches of snow falls in Concord, the first of the white stuff for the season. Several ski areas farther north report between 6 and 8 inches.
Dec. 14, 2002: Nearly 30 years after Patricia Immen worked as a bookmobile clerk for the Concord Public Library, she’s appointed as the library’s new director, the Monitor reports.
Dec. 15, 1987: Just before noontime, Gary Hart and his wife Lee stroll onto the State House Plaza, where the media horde waits. After having dropped out in May because of highly publicized womanizing, Hart announces that he is back in the Democratic race for president. “I have the power of ideas,” he says, “and I can govern this country.”
Dec. 16, 1965: A new state report shows public libraries in New Hampshire spend an average of $2.32 per resident. Concord tops the list at $4.06 per resident. Book readership is also up statewide, to 6.71 books per resident per year.
Dec. 17, 1808: Three years after a state prison is proposed in Concord, the Legislature authorizes a committee of three to accept bids for building one. It will be nearly four years before the prison opens on North States Street at Tremont Street. It will be a three-story, 36-cell structure surrounded by granite walls three feet thick and 14 feet high. The cost: $37,000.
Dec. 17, 1951: The temperature in Concord falls to 22 below zero, making this the coldest December day of the 20th century.
Dec. 18, 1995: Concord’s Bob Tewksbury signs a one-year contract with the San Diego Padres for $1.5 million.
Dec. 18, 2000: For the first time in anyone’s memory, a crowd gathers at the State House to watch the casting of votes for president by New Hampshire’s four members of the Electoral College. The electors all choose George W. Bush, doing their part to ensure his narrow victory over Al Gore.
Dec. 18, 2001: David Rayment, a lawyer representing the Richmond Co., the Massachusetts company that wants to build a supermarket and shopping center adjacent to the South End Marsh, argues in a hearing at Merrimack County Superior Court that the Concord Planning Board unfairly rejected the project. Superior Court Judge John Arnold will later rule that the board did not provide the developers with enough evidence to support its decision to reject the proposal.
