May 19, 2002: Bishop John McCormack addresses parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Concord during morning Mass. The address is a response to the resignation of the Rev. Aime Boisselle, who resigned after three men accused him of molesting them during the early 1960s.
May 19, 1944: Mrs. Charles A. Morin of Monroe Street in Concord hopes a new postal policy aimed at improving communication with prisoners-of-war in Germany will bring word from her son. Lt. Antoine Robert Morin, a pilot, was shot down in February, and his mother received this note, dated Feb. 28: “Dear Folks: Am prisoner of war in Germany. Well and safe. No need for worry. Will write as often as possible. We’ll be together after victory. Will see you all in six months. Bob.” Mrs. Walker has not heard from her son since.
May 20, 1994: A two-alarm fire in the cellar of The Suitcase shop on North Main Street burns a stockroom with inventory and smokes up neighboring stores, particularly Vanderbilt’s Delicatessen. “The smoke was thick enough inside that building that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,” says Battalion Chief Chris Pope.
May 20, 1927: Filing his nationally syndicated column from Concord, humorist Will Rogers writes: “No attempts at jokes today. A slim, tall, bashful, smiling American boy is somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, where no lone human being has ever ventured before. He is being prayed for to every kind of Supreme Being that has a following. If he is lost it will be the most universally regretted loss we ever had.” The next day, that American boy, Charles Lindbergh, will land the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris.
May 20, 1973: Gov. Mel Thomson declares recognition by the trustees of UNH of the Gay Students Organization “repulsive.” “As fast as I can replace the trustees, I shall,” he says.
May 20, 1983: A crowd of women gather at a public hearing in Concord to describe the sorrows of alimony, child support and high legal fees as the state contemplates reforms to porce laws. “We have to start with the girls and tell them this business about living happily ever after – that is a fantasy. It’s a fairy tale. They must face the world knowing they’re responsible for their own support,” says Susan Caldwell, head of the state Commission on the Status of Women.
May 21, 2002: Police officers and rescue workers swarmed the State House, shutting down a section of North Main Street and its side streets so bomb experts could examine what a mask-wearing man had left in a FedEx box, the Monitor reports. The answer, they discovered after quarantining the area for about two hours, was an 8½-by-11-inch FedEx envelope, no explosives included.
May 21, 1913: The Legislature passes Gov. Robert P. Bass’s bill to compensate inmates at the state prison for their labor. Part of the small wage will go directly to the prisoners’ dependents or, if they have none, will be set aside until their release.
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 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 23, 2003: New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord graduates its largest-ever class, handing out 528 two-year associate’s degrees.
May 23, 1864: The Monitor is published for the first time. The city’s first daily newspaper, it is founded “to present the news . . . swearing to the words of no master.”
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 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: Efforts to recruit Newfoundlanders to work on New Hampshire farms because of the labor shortage have fallen well below the state’s goal of 100. Only 23 responded to the call.
