May 1, 1891: By custom, Concord's May Horn ushers in a day of celebrating the final escape from winter. The horn is peculiar to Concord. “The 'oldest inhabitant' cannot recall a first day of May in his boyhood when the din of the horn did not reverberate in some wee hour,” the Monitor reports.
May 1, 1925: The Granite Monthly magazine reports approvingly that Concord, Hillsboro, Goffstown, Peterborough and Milford are all planning new high schools.
“If we are to believe what some people say, that the young folks of today are headed nowhere in particular and in a hurry to get there, we are at least glad to know they are to be educated on the way.”
May 1, 1975: Gov. Mel Thomson engages in a shouting match with 100 welfare recipients protesting a 25 percent cut in benefits.
“Does anyone here want a job?” he asks, pointing to a Department of Employment Security van across from the State House. “We want your job and your pay,” they shout back.
May 2, 1977: Two hundred seventy-seven of the 1,414 anti-nuclear demonstrators arrested at Seabrook on April 30 are moved to the armory on Concord Heights.
May 2, 2001: The temperature in Concord hits 91 degrees, the hottest it's been on this date since 1930. Meanwhile, in Laconia, Lake Winnipesaukee's ice-out is finally declared – 10 days shy of the record for the latest ice-out.
May 3, 1967: Concord High School bars the press from covering Alabama Gov. George Wallace's appearance at the school. Referring to a recent incident in which he was prohibited from speaking at Yale University, Wallace says: “I am glad they are barred – and not me – this time.” After the CHS speech, Wallace heads for Dartmouth, where screaming, jeering students force him from the speaker's platform and surround his car after he has left. They pound the car with their fists for 10 minutes amid signs that read “Wallace is a racist.”
May 4, 1943: The Concord police say they have solved hundreds of thefts with the arrest of 16 high school and junior high school boys. For the most part, the crimes involve objects taken from cars and houses. The boys range in age from 13 to 16.
May 5, 1919: New Hampshire House Speaker Charles Tobey informs a federal agent in Concord that he has received a letter from one Sidney Downing of Lincoln protesting the state' new anti-sedition law. Although the agent's investigation will disclose that Downing is a contrary man who always takes the opposite side in political debates, a report filed with the federal government designates Downing a “Bolshevist sympathizer.”
May 5, 1944: An epidemic of German measles in Concord has driven the absentee list at city schools above 100.
May 5, 2000: U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson addresses a gathering of government officials, business owners and alternative energy enthusiasts at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord. “We want you to have your cars the size that you want, but to make them more efficient,” he says. His department has set a long-term performance goal of 80 miles per gallon for small cars, he says.
May 6, 1848: Colonel Dudley “Dud” Palmer, a leader of Concord's temperance movement, puts forth a resolution requiring the town's selectmen to enforce the laws against the sale of intoxicating drinks. It passes unanimously.
May 6, 1990: Renowned portrait photographer Lotte Jacobi dies in Concord. A native of Germany who lived in Deering for 30 years, Jacobi photographed Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Robert Frost, Marc Chagall, Eleanor Roosevelt and many other giants of the 20th century.
May 6, 2000: Concord Skatepark officially opens behind Everett Arena, and about 100 skaters immediately begin sliding, ramping and jumping to their hearts' content. “A lot of kids go here, so I can learn all the moves,” says Josh Meekins, a middle schooler who plans many returns. “I never could do that before.”
May 6, 2003: An elderly man whom California authorities called the Love Bandit is arrested in Concord after being on the run for four years. Officials says the Richard Garcia, 71, preyed on widows over the age of 65, using his dancing skills to woo his way into their bank accounts. His preferred venues, officials said, were senior dances.
May 7, 1861: The First New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment, gathered in Concord, completes its organization under Col. Mason Tappan of Bradford. Company I is the Concord company, with 34 members from the capital, including its three officers, Capt. Edward E. Sturtevant, 1st Lt. Henry W. Fuller and 2nd Lt. Enoch W. Goss.
