June 6, 1944: Nineteen-year-old Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot Indian, rescues drowning and wounded soldiers while under enemy fire among the first wave of attackers to land on Omaha Beach in France on D-Day. His actions earn him a Silver Star. Shay, who grew up on Indian Island in the Penobscot River, is an Army […]

June 4, 1942: The USS Nicholas, a U.S. Navy Fletcher-class destroyer built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, is commissioned. The second ship to be named for the Marines’ first commandant, Samuel Nicholas (c. 1744-1790), the destroyer receives 30 battle stars – more than any other U.S. Navy ship – for service in World War […]

June 3, 1851: Ten towns incorporate the West Oxford Agricultural Society and establish an annual exhibition. They hold their first fair Oct. 23 in Hiram. The event moves from town to town in its initial years but eventually settles permanently in the town of Fryeburg and becomes known as the Fryeburg Fair. It starts out […]

June 2, 1851: Gov. John Hubbard signs what becomes known as the Maine Law, which bans the sale of alcoholic beverages except for “medicinal, mechanical, or manufacturing purposes.” The law, for which Portland Mayor Neal Dow lobbied furiously, also includes a search-and-seizure provision that enables any three voters to obtain a search warrant if they […]

June 1, 1840: The U.S. census begins and eventually will show that Bangor’s population has reached 8,627, a 201 percent increase from the 1830 total. The then-booming lumber town was incorporated as a city in 1834. June 1, 1849: Inventors, businessmen and identical twins Freelan Oscar Stanley and Francis Edgar Stanley are born in Kingfield. […]

May 31, 1820: The Maine Legislature convenes its first session at the original Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland. The session lasts until June 28. The legislators meet there because the state offices in a nearby two-story Federal-style structure at the corner of Congress and Myrtle streets don’t have enough space to accommodate the House and […]

May 30, 1979: Seventeen of the 18 people aboard a Downeast Airlines commuter plane from Boston die when the plane crashes into a heavily wooded area on Otter Point in Owls Head. The pilot, trying to land at Knox County Regional Airport in Owls Head, made a request for a diversion to Augusta because of […]

  May 28, 1821: Maine’s first governor, William King, resigns from office to become a special minister appointed by James Monroe and assigned to negotiate a treaty with Spain. Maine Senate President William D. Williamson, who later becomes Maine’s first state historian, succeeds King as governor. May 28, 2005: The two-part TV miniseries “Empire Falls,” […]