Feb. 24, 1976: President Gerald Ford barely defeats Ronald Reagan in the New Hampshire primary. On the Democratic side, the winner is long-shot Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
Feb. 25, 1780: Jonathan Harvey is born in Sutton. He will grow up to be president of the New Hampshire Senate in 1818, the same year his brother Matthew is speaker of the New Hampshire House.
Feb. 25, 1978: Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas comes to New Hampshire to explore the possibility of running for president in 1980. “I’m interested,” says Dole. “What I’ve got to find out is if anybody’s interested in me.”
Feb. 26, 2000: Donna Sytek, the first female speaker of the New Hampshire House, informs her colleagues by letter that she will not run for a third term as speaker this fall. She cites her belief in voluntary term limits for legislators and her own health troubles as reasons for stepping down.
Feb. 26, 1942: The H.J. Heinz Co. runs a large ad in the Monitor telling readers: “Blame Hitler, Hirohito, and Benito! . . . Don’t Blame Your Grocer.” The problem? Because of the shortage of sugar and other commodities, many of Heinz’s 57 varieties may be missing from the shelves.
Feb. 26, 1973: The Concord city manager proposes increasing downtown parking fines from $1 to $2.
Feb. 27, 2000: Trucks full of steel beams arrive in Concord, the first shipment of materials for new seating to be installed at Memorial Field. The construction project comes in preparation for the Babe Ruth World Series, to be played in Concord in August.
Feb. 27, 1733: The Massachusetts General Court creates a new township to be called Rumford (earlier known as Penny-Cook, later as Concord).
Feb. 27, 1997: Rep. Renny Cushing recounts the details of his father’s murder to a House committee but then urges legislators not to expand the death penalty. “The only way justice could come about is to exchange the person still walking the earth with my father in the grave,” he says.
Feb. 27, 1958: At one of President Eisenhower’s stag dinners, the guest of honor, the 82-year-old Robert Frost, tells his old friend Sherman Adams: “There may not be much time left, you know.”
Feb. 28, 1987: Sen. Warren Rudman of New Hampshire says he was “thunderstruck” to hear that the candidate he was backing for the 1988 GOP presidential nomination, Howard Baker, had pulled out of the running to become President Reagan’s chief of staff. Rudman takes a shot at Vice President George Bush and tells reporters he will probably support Sen. Bob Dole.
Feb. 29, 1860: Abraham Lincoln travels to Exeter Academy to visit his eldest son Robert, who is a student there.
Feb. 29, 1960: A spectacular midnight fire destroys the Maynard soap factory in Webster.
Feb. 29, 1956: After consulting with his special assistant, Sherman Adams of New Hampshire, and other advisers, President Eisenhower announces that he will seek a second term.
March 1, 1923: Two Concord newspapers, the Evening Monitor and the New Hampshire Patriot, merge. They will operate as the Concord Daily Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot under Editor James M. Langley, Dartmouth graduate and World War I veteran. Circulation by the mid-’20s will exceed 5,000.
March 1, 1973: Gov. Mel Thomson says he will veto any effort to remove “Live Free or Die” from the state’s license plates. Rep. Jack Chandler of Warner agrees. “Those who don’t like the motto should get out of New Hampshire and live in Massachusetts,” he says.
March 2, 2000: A Keene State College seminar discussing sexual relationships between faculty members and students fails to produce a consensus of opinion. Some people say such relationships amount to sexual harassment because professors have power over students. Others in attendance argue that college students, as adults, should be accountable for their personal lives.
March 2, 1848: On the eve of gubernatorial elections, the New Hampshire Patriot, the state’s leading Democratic newspaper, announces imminent peace with Mexico and says the fruits of war redound to the credit of President James K. Polk.
