April 5, 1974: Horror writer Stephen King’s novel “Carrie” is published. It is King’s fourth novel but the first to appear in print. The book and a subsequent movie of the same name make King world-famous. King was born in Portland and raised mostly in Durham, although he also spent part of his childhood in […]

April 4, 1802: Dorothea Dix, who becomes renowned nationwide as a reformer of treatment of the mentally ill and champion of their rights, is born in Hampden. Dix teaches Sunday school lessons in the Cambridge House of Corrections in Massachusetts and witnesses the horrific conditions that people living in such places endure. From 1841 to […]

March 31, 1907: An irritated President Theodore Roosevelt reluctantly accepts the resignation of West Gardiner native John Frank Stevens (1853-1943) as chief engineer on one of the 20th century’s most challenging engineering projects – construction of the Panama Canal. Stevens, who came on board when the project already was underway and plagued with problems, engineered major […]

March 30, 1937: The Maine Legislature adopts Roger Vinton Snow’s “State of Maine Song” as the official state song. Snow (1890-1953), a probate and corporate lawyer and frequent moderator of Falmouth town meetings, submitted the song for a 1931 competition sponsored by the Maine Publicity Bureau, which he won. Cressey and Allen, of Portland, published the […]