April 2, 2003: After nearly 14 months of searching, the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire has found five potential bishops from around the country from which its members can choose, officials announce. The five finalists include the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who, if elected, would become the first openly gay man to head an Episcopal diocese in the United States. Despite considerable controversy, Robinson will be elected.
April 2, 1994: Speaking in Representatives Hall to the New Hampshire Historical Society’s annual meeting, Donald Hall says of his poem “Kicking the Leaves,” whose subject is his moving to New Hampshire in 1975: “I didn’t know we were going to settle here, but the poem did.”
April 2, 1851: Concord’s town meeting votes to end the tolling of bells at funerals. The practice, the resolution says, “is productive of no good, and may, in case of the illness of the living, result in evil.”
April 3, 1865: Edgar L. Carr of Pittsfield, an assistant surgeon with an infantry regiment, writes in his diary: “A day of rejoicing to the American people and especially to the brave army that have been in the trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Our army took possession of both places this morning. … We went through the city of Petersburg; it is a fine place. No Union sentiment was exhibited, except among the colored portion.”
April 3, 1945: Word reaches Concord that Staff Sgt. F. Hamilton Kibbee was killed on Jan. 31 while a prisoner of war in Germany. His wife Mary, who lives on South Street, last heard from him Jan. 7. The Kibbees have two children, ages 4 and 21 months.
April 3, 1909: In perhaps the first full-page automobile ad in the Monitor, Concord dealer Fred Johnson describes in detail the new Buick “Model 17 Touring Car.” It has five seats, two in front, three in back, a steering wheel rather than a tiller, four cylinders and 30 horsepower. A cloth folding top for rainy days is optional. The price: $1,750. It is the first decade of the popularization of the automobile. In 1900, there were 50 cars registered in New Hampshire. By 1910, there will be 3,500.
April 3, 1917: A law takes effect allowing for the use of prison labor on state roads and in state forests. Progressive Republicans proposed and supported the measure, which will see little or no use in the 15 years it is in effect.
April 3, 1865: Concord’s church bells ring and a cannon fires in response to news of the overwhelming defeat of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army at Petersburg, Va.
April 3, 1905: Douglas Everett is born. Everett will become a member of the 1932 U.S. Olympic hockey team, win a silver medal and be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. The Everett Arena in Concord will be named in his honor.
April 3, 1994: Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day, Concord’s Bob Tewksbury defeats the Cincinnati Reds. The highlight is Tewksbury’s two-run double over the head of Reds center fielder Roberto Kelly.
April 4, 1983: Concord City Clerk Marjorie Foote retires after 19 years on the job. “I knew just about everything that was going on with people in this city,” she recalls.
April 4, 1946: Brooklyn Dodger management announces that two African American baseball players, Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, have been assigned to its Nashua farm team. The city’s population of 34,000 includes fewer than 50 African Americans. Frank Stawacz, sports editor of the Nashua Telegraph, writes: “These two boys will have to be glaring standouts, else they will find an atmosphere much to their dislike even in these parts where color makes little or no difference.”
April 4, 1995: Sen. Bob Smith pleads with his Washington colleagues not to allow circus elephants to perform for Congress. “This is not an unreasonable concern. How do you stop an elephant if it goes berserk in the Capitol?” he asks. Ultimately, the show will go on.
April 5, 1881: Fire badly damages the works of the Page Belting Co. The loss is estimated at $24,000.
April 5, 1945: After Agriculture Commissioner Andrew Felker reports the mass shipment of chickens to more profitable out-of-state markets, Gov. Charles Dale authorizes the state police to seize poultry being trucked south on New Hampshire highways.
April 6, 2003: A New Hampshire lay group dedicated to reforming the Catholic Church demands the resignations of Bishop John McCormack and Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian, making it the second Catholic organization in a week to call on McCormack and Christian to resign. New Hampshire Voice of the Faithful says it plans to fax to both leaders and to the Vatican letters demanding their resignations.
April 6, 1775: Hillsborough County calls for the formation of a military regiment. The county instructs its towns to form companies and “make choice of such men as they shall think Best Qualified for teaching the military art.”
April 6, 1943: Awakened by a loud noise on a cold and windy night, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Giles, who live in an apartment adjacent to their store in Canterbury Center, discover the worst fire in the town’s history. “We first knew something was wrong when a piano crashed through the second floor of Union Hall into our store,” they say. The fire destroys the Union Hall, the 118-year-old Congregational Church, Ida Chase’s farm and another farm a quarter mile away.
April 6, 1853: City government is established in Concord.
April 6, 1917: In response to a request from President Woodrow Wilson, Congress declares war on Germany.
April 7, 2000: Robert Blair, who murdered his wife and her young son in a Concord motel in 1996, has told the police he also killed two people in Rutland, Vt., in 1983, the Rutland Herald reports. Detectives there, however, will find no evidence of the killings in the location Blair described.
April 7, 1973: National Republican Party Chairman George Bush is summoned to New Hampshire to help iron out differences between Gov. Mel Thomson and the state party chairman David Gosselin, who has refused to support the governor on some issues, including Thomson’s search of confidential tax records.
April 7, 1968: About 350 people attend a memorial service on the State House plaza for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who was assassinated three days earlier in Memphis.
April 7, 1774: The New Hampshire Assembly, predecessor of the Legislature, reconvenes after a long hiatus. It does not immediately choose a new committee of correspondence.
