On this date in Maine history: March 29

John Richardson

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March 29, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 29

March 29, 1602: The Concord, a small vessel called a bark, sails from Falmouth, England, to establish a colony in North America. On May 14, five years before the establishment of the permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, it anchors in what is now York Harbor after cruising along Maine’s coast from Cape Elizabeth. The ship, […]
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March 28, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 28

March 28, 2006: Caspar Weinberger, U.S. secretary of defense for seven years under President Ronald Reagan, dies at age 88 at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor from pneumonia complications. In the Reagan administration, Weinberger took the lead in directing a rollback strategy against Soviet communism. He was indicted in the Iran-Contra scandal, involving a violation […]
Published
March 27, 2020

Portland clinic to resume services, after 2-week closure for quarantine

The India Street Public Health Center, which provides a needle exchange and other services, closed after staffers were exposed to a person with COVID-19.
Published
March 27, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 27

March 27, 1942: A day after setting off eastward from Casco Bay, the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 39 plows through a heavy sea off Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic, heading for Scotland’s Orkney Islands to reinforce the Home Guard while the British navy participates in a World War II invasion of Madagascar, then under the […]
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March 26, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 26

March 26, 2009: Old Town resident Matthew Cushing, 22, is sentenced to life in prison for stabbing his mother, his stepfather and his half brother to death at their home in Old Orchard Beach and setting their house on fire to cover his tracks. The court sentences him to three life terms for the murder […]
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March 25, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 25

March 25, 1937: Workers at shoe manufacturers in Lewiston and Auburn initiate a strike that grows to more than 4,000 workers by early April. The strike draws widespread attention but ends three months later in failure. In Maine, where many shoe manufacturers had set up shop to flee the unions’ organizing power in Massachusetts, shoemaking […]
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March 24, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 24

March 24, 1958: Life magazine’s cover depicts sculptor Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) wearing a witch’s hat and crouching behind one of her creations. The magazine’s cover article reveals to the nation Nevelson’s “Moon Garden + One” exhibition at the Grand Central Moderns gallery in New York, which opened in January that year and elevates Nevelson, who grew […]
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March 23, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 23

March 23, 1838: Piscataquis County, Maine’s 12th county, is formed from parts of Penobscot and Somerset counties. The county is the location of Moosehead Lake, the state’s largest lake; and Mount Katahdin, the state’s highest mountain. With a population of about 16,800 in 2018, it also is Maine’s least populous county. The number of residents in 2018 […]
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March 22, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 22

March 22, 1848: Dr. Valorus Perry Coolidge of Waterville is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang for killing Edward Mathews on the night of Sept. 30, 1847, in Waterville and robbing him of about $1,500 that Mathews had just withdrawn from a local bank to lend to the debt-ridden Coolidge. The case became a […]
Published
March 21, 2020

On this date in Maine history: March 21

March 21, 2015: A lift at Sugarloaf ski resort in Carrabassett Valley stops and rolls backward, injuring seven adults, four of whom require hospital treatment. The incident strands about 200 skiers and snowboarders on the lift for about 90 minutes. On June 25, Sugarloaf announces $1.3 million in upgrades to lift safety, including a new […]