Dec. 25, 1870: “Never has a sadder Christmas dawned on any city,” Livermore native Elihu Washburne writes in Paris while serving as the U.S. minister to France. “The sufferings … exceed by far anything we have seen.” On the 99th day of the Prussian army’s siege of the city during the Franco-Prussian War, Washburne, one […]

Dec. 24, 2018: Incumbent U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, drops his federal lawsuit claiming that he, not Democrat Jared Golden, should have won the Nov. 6 election for his seat. Golden was declared the winner under Maine’s new ranked-choice voting system. Running for re-election against three challengers, Poliquin was the top vote-getter, but fell […]

Dec. 23, 1831: The Augusta newspaper The Age publishes its first issue, just in time to capitalize on the impending arrival of state government and the printing contracts it is likely to offer. In the 1850s, Melville Weston Fuller (1833-1910) is a part-owner of the newspaper. The Age competes for several decades with the Kennebec […]

Dec. 22, 1807: President Thomas Jefferson signs the Embargo Act in response to British seizure of American cargo and impressment of American seamen during the Napoleonic wars. The law, which forbids trade with other nations, hobbles Maine seaports’ economy, which was thriving until then. The law is repealed two years later, but continued agitation from […]

Dec. 21, 2005: Maine Turnpike Authority Director Paul Violette announces that his agency is planning to replace the turnpike’s toll plaza at York, which was meant to be temporary but has been functioning for 35 years. Violette said the toll plaza, which is 7 miles northeast of the New Hampshire state line on Interstate 95, […]

Dec. 20, 2018: The Portland Press Herald reports that Efficiency Maine, a state agency whose mission is to help Maine residents use energy more efficiently, has contracted with a California company for the installation of seven electric-vehicle charging stations along Maine highways from the southern part of the state to the Quebec border. The company, […]

Dec. 19, 2011: As police investigate the disappearance of 20-month-old Ayla Reynolds of Waterville, officers seize her father’s sport utility vehicle and a Portland woman’s car from the driveway at the man’s Violette Avenue home. Searchers use an airboat to search along Messalonskee Stream for signs of the girl, and dozens of officers search the […]

Dec. 18, 2019: U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, becomes the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives to split his vote on the two articles of impeachment against President Trump. Golden votes to impeach Trump, a Republican, for abuse of power but against impeachment for obstruction of Congress. Both articles pass largely on […]

Dec. 16, 2007: Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, 56, dies of prostate cancer at home in Deer Isle, where he has lived for 25 years. Fogelberg, a native of Peoria, Illinois, also lived many years in Colorado and recorded his music there. Achieving his greatest success in the 1970s and 1980s, he was known best for songs […]