June 6, 1798: The Legislature opens a two-week session in Hopkinton. To be hospitable, the town issues five new liquor licenses to local taverns.
June 6, 1861: Harriet Patience Dame, a 46-year-old Concord nurse, enlists as hospital matron of the Second New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry Regiment. She will keep the job for the duration of the war without a day’s illness or absence.
June 6, 1944: At 3:55 on this Tuesday morning, Captain Leo F. Blodgett of the Concord Fire Department sets off Concord’s downtown fire alarm, sounding two “eights.” This is the signal that the Allied invasion of Europe has begun. All over Concord, lights blink on as residents rise to turn on their radios. Gov. Robert O. Blood declares that this is a day for prayer and hope, not for celebration. Special church services throughout the state are widely attended.
June 6, 2001: Concord High School graduate Matt Tupman hits the first home run in Concord Quarry Dogs history, a blast over the centerfield wall at Keene’s Alumni Field. The team improves its record to 3-0 for the season.
June 7, 1765: The provincial government grants Concord a royal charter. Since 1733, the town had been called Rumford, and before that, under a 1725 Massachusetts charter, Penny-Cook.
June 7, 1900: Gov. Theodore Roosevelt of New York speaks to the graduation luncheon at St. Paul’s School. The future president tells the boys: “No fooling, no shirking, and hit the line hard.”
June 7, 1965: To celebrate the city’s bicentennial, Concord leaders bury a time capsule in the State House plaza, to be reopened on June 7, 2015. Among the items inside: marble from the giant railroad station demolished in 1961 and wood from the State House dome.
June 7, 1989: Concord area religious leaders take out newspaper ads condemning three recent anti-Semitic actions: graffiti on the bike path across Turkey Pond, newsletters on cars outside two supermarkets and a swastika painted on the roof of Temple Beth Jacob.
June 7, 2000: The Concord High girls’ lacrosse team overcomes a four-goal deficit to win the state Division I championship. The 12-11 victory over Nashua ends the Purple Panthers’ 53-game in-state winning streak and two-year grip on the state title.
June 8, 1798: State House chaplain Joshua Heywood is fired after two days on the job. His infraction: failure to pray for President John Adams.
June 8, 1941: Yankee third baseman Red Rolfe of Penacook hits a homer in the first game of New York’s doubleheader sweep at Cleveland. Rolfe’s teammate, Joe DiMaggio, homers twice in the first game and has two hits in the second. His hitting streak now stands at 24 games.
June 8, 2000: With $240,000 in outstanding parking fines on record, Concord is looking for ways to beef up enforcement, the Monitor reports. The most drastic proposal is a boot-and-tow ordinance that would immobilize cars whose drivers owe more than $100 or have more than five outstanding tickets.
June 9, 1846: The cannon on Sand Hill in Concord booms the news that John Parker Hale of Dover, an anti-slavery leader, has been elected to the U.S. Senate.
June 9, 1909: The cornerstone is laid for the New Hampshire Historical Society’s building on Park Street. It will be more than two years before the building is finished.
June 10, 1900: A Concord police officer arrests clerk Walter Davis at Fitch’s Drug Store for selling soda water on Sunday. The law allows for Sunday sales of only “bread, milk and the other necessities of life.” A judge will let Davis off, saying that soda is as necessary to life as milk and that citizens should be encouraged to drink anything other than alcoholic beverages.
June 10, 1983: A celebration marks the opening of Eagle Square. Former mayor Martin Gross delivers a poem to mark the occasion. One stanza describes the Eagle Stable, which will soon be open in the Crystal Courtyard, a mini-mall for specialty foods:
Your stable’s stalls, once equine halls,
soon hungry souls will seek.
No hay or mash but gourmet stash –
an appetite boutique.
June 10, 2001: Merrimack Valley wins the Class I softball championship with a 4-1 victory over Monadnock. It’s the school’s first softball title since 1987.
June 10, 2003: In their season opener, Concord’s Quarry Dogs eke out a 3-2 win over the Sanford Mainers at Doane Diamond.
June 11, 1837: Samuel Coffin Eastman is born in Concord. A great-grandson of Ebenezer Eastman, Concord’s first settler, he will become a prominent lawyer, bank president, railroad man, speaker of the New Hampshire House and school board member. In 1915, when Concord celebrates the 150th anniversary of its royal charter as a parish, he will be recognized as the city’s most prominent citizen and “president of the day.”
June 11, 2001: People passing by the federal courthouse in Concord share their reactions to the early morning execution of Timothy McVeigh. Their overwhelming sentiment: Good riddance.
June 11, 2003: Attorney General John Ashcroft visits Concord to meet with the state’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force, praising the officials who make up the group and thanking U.S. Attorney Thomas Colantuono and Gov. Craig Benson for their work in securing the state. “Our efforts to protect America depend on law enforcement being integrated and cooperative,” Ashcroft says at a press conference at the federal courthouse, “sharing information, and sharing understanding, from the very feet on the street in local law enforcement to those who are at the top levels of administration in national law enforcement.”
June 12, 1804: Alarmed by the frequency of escapes from local prisons, Gov. John Gilman makes the first substantive proposal for a state prison in Concord. It will be more than eight years before the prison opens on North State and Tremont streets.
June 12, 1886: The Daniel Webster statue is dedicated in front of the State House.
June 12, 1905: J.N. Marston of Dublin is the first motorist in New Hampshire to receive a speeding ticket. Shortly after the first statutes governing motor vehicle conduct are enacted, Marston is collared for “driving his machine about the streets of Keene in a somewhat reckless manner.” He is caught after overtaking and overturning a horse-drawn buggy, injuring the two occupants. The police cite him for exceeding 8 mph.
June 12, 1977: In Concord, William Loeb tells the Gun Owners of New Hampshire that the only way to combat “anti-gun nuts” is “to go directly to the great mass of American people and educate them on the obvious necessity of citizens owning and having guns.”
June 12, 2001: About 40 educators, health care workers, environmentalists and others march from Allenstown to Concord to mark the 10th anniversary of the Claremont school funding lawsuit.
June 12, 2002: After three decades of teaching at Rumford School in Concord, teachers Curt Darling and Tom McKoan retire.
