May 22, 1879: The Monitor editorializes against a fountain in the State House plaza: “The fountain continues to squirt water all over those who have the temerity to walk in its vicinity, as in the days of yore. Its location ought to be changed.” In 1914, it is discarded to make room for the statue of Franklin Pierce.
May 22, 2001: Concord Litho Group, one of the world’s largest printers of greeting cards, has laid off 31 of its 231 employees, the Monitor reports. The elimination of jobs is expected to be permanent.
May 23, 2003: New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord graduates its largest-ever class, handing out 528 two-year associate degrees.
May 24, 1844: Samuel F.B. Morse, who began his career as a Concord mechanic, sends the first message over his electro-magnetic telegraph. The previous year, Congress appropriated $30,000 to test the machine on a line laid from Washington to Baltimore. New Hampshireman Benjamin Brown French, who will soon join Morse and others in the Magnetic Telegraph Co., calls it “one of the greatest inventions of the age” and predicts it will “eventually be laid down all over the Union.”
May 24, 1944: The Legislature unveils a plaque on the 100th anniversary of the first message Samuel F.B. Morse’s sent on his invention, the telegraph: “What God hath wrought.” Morse lived in Concord as a young portrait painter and married Lucretia Pickering Walker, a descendant of Concord’s first minister, Timothy Walker.
May 24, 2002: The Concord Police Department’s proposed budget includes $4,500 to install video surveillance equipment in Bicentennial Square, the Monitor reports. According to Police Chief Jerry Madden, business owners and residents have complained about vandalism and vulgarity there for years.
May 25, 1861: The First New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, marching under former congressman Mason Tappan of Bradford, marches down Concord’s Main Street en route to a train for the front. As Tappan rides past the Phenix Hotel, an observer finds him “a little anxious, not exactly glad to go, but ready to do a soldier’s duty.” The train carrying the men south comprises 18 passenger cars and 20 freight cars. The journey to Washington will take three days.
May 25, 1944: The Monitor’s lead photograph on page one, an illustration of the state’s severe labor shortage, shows three blind men working at the New England Briar Pipe Co. in Penacook.
May 25, 1983: Return of the Jedi debuts in Concord and 700 people turn out to watch. “My kids have been talking about this for three months,” says Lynn Ring of Northwood. “Is there any other movie?”
May 25, 2002: Nearly 400 students graduate from New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, marking the college’s first year as an accredited school in its 35-year history.
May 26, 1944: After several destructive incidents, the police join school officials in urging young people not to play with handmade grenades. The grenades are filled with carriage bolts and use match-heads for the explosive charge. Children have been reported making and throwing them throughout the city.
May 26, 2002: Though hardcore political activists in both parties have been obsessed with the elections for more than a year, most normal people barely realize what the buzz is all about, the Monitor reports. There are hugely competitive races at every level of government, so 2002 is going to be a watershed year in New Hampshire politics. “If you’re even been sickened by politics, get ready to be sickened this year,” said David Corbin, a professor of American politics at the University of New Hampshire and a Republican candidate for senator on the Seacoast.
May 26, 2003: Just about the only full-fledged Memorial Day parade is the procession of cars, complete with trailers and car-top carriers, heading south down Interstate 93, calling an early end to the rainy holiday weekend. Cities and towns around the state either downscale Memorial Day ceremonies and parades, cram events indoors or cancel them altogether.
May 27, 1727: New Hampshire’s legislature grants a charter to a township that includes most of present-day Concord and Bow and part of Pembroke. Because Massachusetts had drawn different boundaries for a similar area, the charter led to much confusion over jurisdiction and – more important – tax collection.
May 27, 2002: For the 26th straight year, the Concord boys’ tennis team reaches the Class L semifinals. They get to the Final Four with an 8-1 victory over No. 7 Portsmouth at Memorial Field.
May 28, 1996: U.S. Sen. Bob Smith tours Concord’s so-called “crud corridor,” 440 acres of mostly unsightly and underutilized buildings near Interstate 93. Smith supports the city’s bid for a $200,000 federal grant to identify contamination along the corridor, much of which the city will successfully redevelop into an “opportunity corridor.”
May 28, 2000: New Hampshire wildlife biologists are considering importing up to 150 Karner blue butterflies from New York, the Monitor reports. Concord’s unique population of the butterflies is close to extinction, and the biologists hope an infusion of new blood will help the species survive.
