Jan. 24, 1692: In an event that comes to be known as the Candlemas Massacre, Chief Madockawando and the Rev. Louis-Pierre Thury lead a French and Wabanaki war party in an attack on the English settlement at York during King William’s War, killing about 100 inhabitants, taking about 80 as hostages and setting many buildings […]
Bicentennial
Stories about Maine’s 202 Bicentennial from the Sun Journal.
Posted inBicentennial, Local & State, News
On this date in Maine history: Jan. 22
Jan. 22, 1981: Belgian-born novelist and essayist Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), having lived for more than three decades in relative obscurity on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, attends a ceremony in Paris at which she becomes the first woman inducted into the prestigious Académie Française. Yourcenar is known best as the author of the novels “Memoirs of […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 21
Jan. 21, 1833: In Winthrop, Ezekiel Holmes (1801-1865) publishes the first issue of a long-running newspaper that eventually will become known as the Maine Farmer. Kennebec Journal co-founder Russell Eaton buys the newspaper in 1844 and moves it to Augusta, where it operates for another eight decades. Holmes, dubbed “the father of Maine agriculture,” also […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 20
Jan. 20, 1998: Central Maine Power Co. submits to federal officials a report estimating that the cost of restoring electrical power to about 632,000 Maine residents who lost it in a regionwide ice storm would reach $55 million. The amount is more than double the $25 million figure the company cited on Jan. 12, five days […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 19
Jan. 19, 1929: The National Park Service changes the name of Lafayette National Park, on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, to Acadia National Park. The park became a public land preserve in 1916 as Sieur de Monts National Monument. When it was elevated to national park status in 1919, it took the name “Lafayette” in honor […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 18
Jan. 18, 2012: In Augusta, Capitol Police Chief Russell Gauvin reports that a new security checkpoint at the west entrance of the State House is complete and operational. Workers at that entrance run scanning machines similar to those found in airports. The public no longer is able to enter the State House through any of the […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 17
Jan. 17, 2002: Fire severely damages buildings on Main Street in Lincoln. Three days later, a second fire breaks out. The two blazes combined wipe out a quarter of the Penobscot County town’s business district, including the three-story Lake Mall, and displace 10 businesses. Firefighters ultimately contain both fires and save other downtown businesses. The […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 16
Jan. 16, 2009: Realist painter Andrew Wyeth dies in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, his birthplace, at age 91 after a 70-year career. He later is buried near his summer home in South Cushing, Maine, where he once observed Christina Olson (1893-1968) shuffling slowly up a hill toward her home, using her hands to propel herself because […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 15
Jan. 15, 1877: Ether Shepley, who served from 1848 to 1855 as the fourth chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, dies in Portland at age 87. Shepley also was a delegate to Maine’s constitutional convention, a U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, and a U.S. senator for three years. His most enduring […]
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On this date in Maine history: Jan. 14
Jan. 14, 1943: Author Laura E. Richards dies in Gardiner, where she spent most of her adult life. Richards won, with her sisters, a Pulitzer Prize in 1917 for “Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910,” a biography of their mother, who wrote the words to the song “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Richards, a Boston native, […]