Dec. 2, 2000: Shortly before 2 p.m. Canterbury Country Store owner Bob Summers rings up his final sale and then shuts the place down. The store will reopen nearly a year later, after members of the community invest several hundred thousand dollars to buy it.
Dec. 2, 1774: New Hampshire’s committee of correspondence, formed the previous year to stay in touch with other colonies about acts of the British Parliament, sends a warrant to all towns urging the adoption of a continental association. The association’s purpose is to establish a boycott on the import and consumption of British goods. Although Portsmouth and Exeter will quickly approve the warrant, itinerant merchants working further inland will make the boycott difficult to enforce.
Dec. 2, 1962: Deposits of thorium are discovered in the White Mountains.
Dec. 3, 2001: Manchester inventor Dean Kamen unveils the Segway Human Transporter on ABC’s Good Morning America. Formerly known as Ginger or IT, the one-person, battery-powered scooter averages a speed of 8 mph, but can travel up to 17 or 18 mph.
Dec. 3, 1991: John Sununu, who left New Hampshire’s corner office three years earlier to become President Bush’s most powerful adviser on domestic politics, resigns as White House chief of staff. Sununu writes that he did not want to become a “political negative” for the president and a “drag” on his reelection chances.
Dec. 4, 2000: Salisbury residents who helped douse a backyard fire say a ball of flames fell from the sky and theorize it was a meteorite. Although the cause of the mysterious fire will continue to be debated, experts will throw cold water on the meteorite theory.
Dec. 4, 1900: In raids, 16 police officers from Manchester and Suncook bust 20 people under the state’s prohibition statute. Since bootleggers are still active, “there will be plenty to drink,” a Suncook villager says.
Dec. 5, 1908: Fire Chief William Green sets out for the movies at Phenix Hall, but even though the same show played at the nearby Opera House for more than a year, the Phenix is filled. There are plans to convert yet another building in the Durgin block into a theater. “Verily, the people are moving picture mad,” Mayor Charles Corning writes in his diary.
Dec. 5, 1999: A fire breaks out at South Congregational Church in Concord 45 minutes before a scheduled performance of Handel’s Messiah. After about 80 singers and musicians in formal attire gather on Pleasant Street, they head for nearby St. Paul’s Church, where about 200 people are treated to an impromptu rendition of the oratorio’s most famous section.
Dec. 6, 2001: The New Hampshire Technical Institute has been accredited as a two-year community college by the New England Association of Schools and College’s Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning, the same group that assesses the University of New Hampshire and the state colleges in Keene and Plymouth, the Monitor reports. “This is one of the most significant moments in the history of NHTI,” said President Bill Simonton. “It will probably set the stage for the next 40 years of college.”
Dec. 7, 1972: New Hampshire officials announce that elderly skiers will get reduced rates at two state-owned ski areas. Those 65 and older will get a discount at Cannon and Sunapee. Those over 70 will ski free.
Dec. 7, 1965: Concord’s new Douglas N. Everett Ice Arena on Loudon Road is dedicated.
