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, the vehicle by which the colonies share information about acts of Parliament, but will soon do so in response to British efforts to control the Port of Boston.
April 7, 1965: The Monitor reports on plans for a new $1.2 million state liquor store on Storrs Street in Concord. “The state store is expected to become the first of its sort in the nation. Ohio has featured self-service liquor stores for a dozen years, but they have not also featured specialty liquors and wines, as planned in the model Concord store.”
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 8, 1864: Capt. Dana W. King of Nashua and 47 members of the 2nd New Hampshire Cavalry are captured during the disastrous battle of Sabine Cross Roads, La. They are taken to “wretched captivity in the famous ‘stockade,’ or poison pen, at Tyler, Texas,” their adjutant reports.
April 8, 1977: Poll results are released showing 62 percent of New Hampshire residents favor construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant, with 22 percent opposed.
April 8, 1992: The Associated Press reports that two of President Bush’s top advisers rolled up $774,000 in personal and political travel on military planes during the first half of his administration but reimbursed taxpayers less than 8 percent of that cost. The culprits: James Baker and John Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor.
April 9, 2003: In a rally at the State House, state employees and several hundred supporters attack Gov. Craig Benson’s proposed state cuts, rallying against a plan that would freeze wages and send their health care costs soaring.
April 9, 2002: Internships with local businesses, credit for community service and lectures from prison guards are among the suggestions at a meeting of a task force set up to fight Franklin High School’s dropout rate, which is 16 percent, according to the Department of Education.
April 9, 2000: A party at Rundlett Middle School brings together longtime Concord-area residents with immigrants and refugees who are more recent arrivals. The event is part of a broader effort that educational, social service and business organizations hope will eventually lead to the creation of a multicultural center.
April 9, 1931: Gov. John Winant appoints a commission to determine what industries might be suitable for the prison. The prisoners have been working as contract laborers for a chair company, but a federal law soon to go into effect will prohibit interstate commerce in prison-made goods.
April 9, 1866: New Hampshire’s governor and council approve money for a monument to be erected at Winchester, Va., in honor of the 14th New Hampshire Volunteers. The monument will list the names of 31 officers and men who “are here buried in one common grave” and 13 others mortally wounded in the September 1864 Battle of Winchester.
April 10, 2002: Republican gubernatorial candidate Craig Benson, after campaigning for nearly a year, announces his official candidacy with a promise to balance the next budget without raising taxes.
April 10, 2001: The police arrest a Penacook man and charge him with arson and burglary in connection with recent vandalism at the United Church of Penacook.
April 10, 2000: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen picks Phil Stanley, a department of corrections administrator in Washington state, to be New Hampshire’s next corrections commissioner. He will succeed Hank Risley, who was killed in a helicopter crash while on a sightseeing tour in Hawaii.
April 10, 1865: A huge celebration in Concord marks the end of the Civil War. Mayor Moses Humphrey orders the city’s fire engines decorated and ready to move to the State House by 4:30 p.m. Bands play, cannons boom, church bells peal. After nightfall, there is a “general illumination” of the city and a 400-gun salute is fired.
April 10, 1829: While addressing a Merrimack County jury in Concord, the spellbinding lawyer Ezekiel Webster, brother of Daniel, drops dead. “He had spoken nearly a half hour, in full and unaltering voice, when the hand of death arrested his earthly course,” writes Judge Charles Corning.
April 11, 2001: New Hampshire Public Radio reports it has completed its most lucrative spring pledge drive ever. This fundraising success follows a decision to drop classical and jazz programming in favor of news and call-in shows.
April 11, 2000: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen announces she will nominate Superior Court Chief Justice Linda Dalianis to the state Supreme Court. Dalianis will become the first female justice on the state’s highest court.
April 11, 1986: Chosen by the New York Yankees five years earlier as a 19th-round draft pick, Bob Tewksbury of Concord makes his first major league start at Yankee Stadium. He defeats the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2.
April 11, 1941: At the University of Bristol in England, on the night after a severe bombing of the city, Prime Minister Winston Churchill confers an honorary degree on John G. Winant of Concord. Winant, a former New Hampshire governor, is the new U.S. ambassador to Britain.
April 11, 1974: Gov. Mel Thomson warns state college students not to streak. “Running naked through public buildings and on the streets is an affront to most of our citizens. It is an exercise in depravity. If tolerated, it can only lead to the eventual loss of whatever sense of morality still exists in America.”
April 11, 1984: Fire ravages the 125-year-old St. Paul’s church in Concord, leaving only the walls, bell tower and half the roof intact. Firefighters have to smash a century-old stained glass window to ventilate the building and the floor beneath the altar collapses.
April 12, 2003: The police arrest 90 people and twice fire pepper gas to dispense a bottle-throwing crowd of about 4,000 that spills into downtown Durham streets after New Hampshire loses the NCAA hockey championship game.
April 12, 1990: Charles Simic of Strafford, longtime English professor at the University of New Hampshire, wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for The World Doesn’t End.
April 12, 1917: Six days after the United States declares war on the Axis powers, the Legislature passes a law prohibiting walkouts, strikes and lockouts in New Hampshire industries that produce war materiel. A state Committee of Public Safety is established to report any union or other radical activity to federal agents based in Concord.
April 12, 1984: An off-duty state trooper spots two men lifting the license plates from Gov. John Sununu’s car at a Shelburne motel. They are promptly arrested and charged with theft.
April 12, 1934: Two years after scientists begin daily weather observations on Mount Washington, observers record the greatest wind speed ever measured on earth: 231 mph.
April 13, 2003: A fire breaks out in an apartment building off East Side Drive in Concord, attracting the attention of Kyle Bissonnette, 12, Matthew Peters, 12, and Nate Bell, 10. Seeing flames shooting from a downstairs window in the Regency Estates apartment building, the three pull their bikes over and flag down a passer-by, who calls the police. Kyle and Matthew head into the building and start knocking on doors, making sure everyone is out and rousing residents who don’t hear the smoke alarms. Nate waits outside to make sure his friends come out okay. One apartment is destroyed in the blaze. Nobody is injured.
