Sept. 14, 1908: Voters approve by a more than 2-to-1 margin an amendment to the Maine Constitution that establishes the right to a “people’s veto” by referendum and an initiative by petition at general and special elections. The amendment becomes effective Jan. 6, 1909. Maine becomes the first Eastern state to embed into law the […]

Sept. 13, 1921: Future President Franklin D. Roosevelt, stricken with a paralytic illness believed to be polio while at his family’s vacation home on the New Brunswick island of Campobello, is taken across the water in excruciating pain by motor launch to Eastport, Maine. There he is loaded into a train from a special baggage […]

Sept. 10, 1917: Maine’s men, contradicting earlier action by the Legislature, vote by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio to reject a proposed state constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. The House, with future Gov. Percival Baxter leading the charge, had voted 113-35 to approve the measure, and women’s suffrage had fared even better in […]

Sept. 9, 1957: Maine voters approve a change to the Maine Constitution that ends the 137-year-old practice of holding statewide elections on the second Monday in September. Instead, that voting will occur on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, just as it does in every other state. The September date was designated […]

Sept. 7, 1943: In the midst of World War II’s Italian campaign, a former Maine governor, William Tudor Gardiner, takes part in a secret mission to meet with Italian generals before the Italians strike an armistice with the United States. Italian forces smuggle Gardiner, then a U.S. Army colonel, and Army Brig. Gen. Maxwell Taylor, […]