June 15, 1781: Brig. Gen. Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829) and Maj. Benjamin Burton, both U.S. Army officers being held prisoner by Loyalists during the Revolutionary War and confined at Fort George in British-controlled Castine, escape by cutting a hole in the roof of their jail cell. They were captured and imprisoned for their role in the […]

June 14, 1834: Leonard Norcross of Dixfield patents a diving suit made of rubber with a metal helmet attached to it with a watertight seal. Norcross (1798-1865) experimented with the suit in the Webb River in Oxford County. A set of bellows provided an air supply to the helmet through a hose. The test diver’s […]

June 13, 2018: The Wells-Ogunquit Community School District board votes unanimously to discontinue the use of Native American imagery for school logos. They vote to keep the “Warriors” nickname, but the Indian head image in use at the schools is dropped. The decision ends a seven-month study of the matter, during which those who found […]

June 12, 1800: Congress allocates $5,500 for the purchase of Fernald’s Island in Portsmouth Harbor. The island becomes the site of what is now Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, now located in Kittery. Originally one of a close group of five islands, Fernald’s is merged through construction and now is part of the much larger Seavey’s Island. […]