July 18, 1864: Three men in civilian clothes walk into the Calais Bank in Calais. Just as they begin to draw revolvers to rob the bank, armed federal agents who have been tipped off about the plan catch the would-be robbers off-guard and arrest them. The ringleader, William Collins, is a Confederate army captain who […]

July 16, 1915: Ellen Gould Harmon White, 88, a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who was born in Gorham and raised in Portland, dies in California. Raised in the Methodist church, she suffered permanent disfigurement at the age of 9 when another girl threw a stone at her face and broke her nose. White […]

July 14, 2013: Bill Warner, 44, of Wimauma, Florida, dies following a crash at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone while trying to set another motorcycle land-speed world record. His goal? To hit the 300-mph mark in less than a mile. His bike is clocked at 285 mph before the accident occurs during […]

July 13, 1658: Twenty-nine men in the town of Spurwink, now part of Portland, sign a document submitting to the authority of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Massachusetts authorities already seized Saco, Biddeford, Cape Porpoise and Kennebunk earlier. At this point, it has taken seven years for Maine to lose its autonomy. Maine won’t get it […]

July 12, 1896: Arthur Sewall of Bath is nominated for the vice presidency at the five-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago, running for election with populist and presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. Sewall is a wealthy shipbuilder and industrialist, but the only elective office he ever held was that of alderman and councilman in Bath. […]

July 11, 1814: During the two-and-a-half-year War of 1812, a British fleet under the command of Commodore Sir Thomas Hardy arrives off Eastport and demands the surrender of Fort Sullivan. Hardy gives the occupants only five minutes to reply. Maj. Perley Putnam, the fort’s commander, responds by saying his men will defend it at any […]

July 10, 1962: The newly built Andover Earth Station successfully transmits a television image from Andover to the Pleumeur-Bodou Ground Station, on the Brittany coast in northwestern France, via the Telstar 1 satellite, which was launched that morning in Florida. It is the first trans-Atlantic transmission of a TV signal via satellite. The first image […]

July 9, 1806: In one of the worst domestic-violence crimes in Maine history, Capt. James Purrinton, 46, assaults his entire family with an ax sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. at their farm on Belgrade Road in Augusta. His wife, Betsey, 45, is killed immediately, as are their children Polly, 19; Benjamin, 12; Anna, 10; […]