Dec. 10, 2010: Bushmaster Firearms International announces it plans to close its assembly plant in Windham, effective the following March 31. Founded in 1973, the company employs 73 workers in Maine at the time of the announcement. Bushmaster’s parent company, North Carolina-based Freedom Group Inc., says in a news release that the Windham staff will […]
John Richardson
Posted inHealth, Local & State, News
Mainers urged to stay vigilant as vaccines arrive, and for a long time afterward
People who are injected with the vaccines still may be able to harbor and spread the disease, one reason face masks could be part of American life well into 2021, and maybe beyond.
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Posted inBicentennial, Local & State, News
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 9
Dec. 9, 1814: Near the end of the War of 1812, participants in a two-day meeting held at the Portland customs house conclude that they should appeal to President James Madison to save them from “treacherous” policies implemented by Massachusetts, of which the District of Maine is still a part. The delegates are particularly incensed […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 8
Dec. 8. 1819: U.S. Rep John Holmes, Democrat-Republican from Maine, submits a petition to the House advocating for the admission of Maine as the 23rd U.S. state. U.S. Sen. Prentiss Mellen, a Massachusetts native residing in Portland, does likewise in the Senate. Holmes later becomes one of Maine’s first two U.S. senators. Mellen is appointed […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 7
Dec. 7, 1851: A massive fire breaks out around 5 a.m. in the Larrabee & Jordan grocery store in Portland, on the eastern side of Commercial Wharf, destroying many wharves and commercial buildings along the city’s waterfront. Twenty-seven stores and nine vessels burn. The city’s Eastern Argus newspaper gauges it to be the worst Portland […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 6
Dec. 6, 1819: Voters approve a draft of the forthcoming state of Maine’s new constitution. The “yes” side gets more than 90 percent of the vote. Dec. 6, 1931: Botanist Kate Furbish, 97, dies in her hometown, Brunswick, after a six-decade career in which she walked all over the state to describe, depict and catalogue […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 5
Dec. 5, 1933: The U.S. Constitution’s 14-year prohibition of alcohol consumption, an outgrowth of the Maine Liquor Law of the 1850s, comes to an end when Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment. The Constitution requires that for an amendment to take effect, it must be passed by a two-thirds majority in […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 4
Dec. 4, 1816: The Massachusetts General Court dissolves a Brunswick convention held to determine the results of a Sept. 2 referendum on whether Maine should separate from Massachusetts. The decision is a blow to pro-separatists, who badly mismanaged their accounting of the referendum result. Dec. 4, 1899: U.S. House Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed (1839-1902) of […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 3
Dec. 3, 1987: Former Gov. Robert N. Haskell dies in Bangor at the age of 85. Haskell served five and a half days as governor in January 1959. Haskell, an electrical engineer who was promoted to president of the Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. in 1958, became governor when Gov. Edmund S. Muskie resigned on Jan. 2, […]
Posted inBicentennial
On this date in Maine history: Dec. 2
Dec. 2, 1895: U.S. Rep. Thomas Brackett Reed (1839-1902), a Republican from Portland, becomes speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves in that office until March 1899, a period that encompasses the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor and the Spanish-American War, which started because of that sinking. Reed unsuccessfully seeks […]