July 25, 1722: Massachusetts Bay Colony Gov. Samuel Shute declares war on the Wabanaki Confederacy. This begins what is referred to variously as Lovewell’s or Dummer’s War among other names as well. It is during this three-year conflict that English raiders in 1724 destroy the Native American settlement at Norridgewock, killing and scalping The Rev. […]
Bicentennial
News and information about Maine’s 2020 bicentennial from the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.
Posted inBicentennial, Local & State, News
On this date in Maine history: July 24
July 24, 1927: Two months after his pioneering solo trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, aviator Charles Lindbergh lands the same plane in Old Orchard Beach while on a goodwill tour. His original landing site – Portland’s new airfield in Scarborough – is fogbound, so he uses Old Orchard Beach instead. “You see, […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 23
July 23, 1849: Gov. John Dana signs a bill permitting the incorporation of Augusta, Maine’s capital, as a city. At a special meeting held the following Dec. 31, voters approve the incorporation, 586-196. City government and its departments are organized in 1850. In the first mayoral election, candidates run on a partisan basis, unlike the […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 22
July 22, 2010: The only financial backer of a proposed $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal in the small Canadian-border city of Calais withdraws from the project. The pullout of investment bank Goldman Sachs and its subsidiary, GS Power Holdings, LLC, was one of many problems that doomed the project. A group called Calais LNG […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 21
July 21, 1957: Kenneth Roberts, known chiefly for his many historical novels, dies at the age of 71 in Kennebunkport, where he was born and where he lived for many years. Roberts’ best-known works include “Northwest Passage,” a French and Indian War-era tale that was published in 1937 and made into a 1940 movie starring […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 20
July 20, 1970: A fire of unknown origin destroys a B-52 Stratofortress bomber on the ground at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone. The $7.7 million (about $51.4 million in 2019) jet burns down to the tarmac in less than an hour. Small explosions occur when fuel tanks rupture and the plane’s tires burst. Two […]
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On this date in Maine History: July 19
July 19, 1969: A fire breaks out in the amusement area known as the White Way in Old Orchard Beach, destroying about two blocks and one-third of the town’s famous pier, from which many visitors are evacuated by ladder. The fire, striking at the height of the tourist season, inflicts severe burns on one person […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 18
July 18, 1864: Three men in civilian clothes walk into the Calais Bank in Calais. Just as they begin to draw revolvers to rob the bank, armed federal agents who have been tipped off about the plan catch the would-be robbers off-guard and arrest them. The ringleader, William Collins, is a Confederate army captain who […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 17
July 17, 1939: Twelve-year-old Donn Fendler (1926-2016), of Rye, New York, becomes separated from his family during a storm near the summit of Maine’s Mount Katahdin. Putting his Boy Scout skills to use, he survives nine days without food or proper clothing, then finds his way back to civilization in the town of Stacyville, having […]
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On this date in Maine history: July 16
July 16, 1915: Ellen Gould Harmon White, 88, a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church who was born in Gorham and raised in Portland, dies in California. Raised in the Methodist church, she suffered permanent disfigurement at the age of 9 when another girl threw a stone at her face and broke her nose. White […]