Dec. 31, 1775: As the first year of the American Revolution draws to a close, American Revolutionary forces led by Col. Benedict Arnold and Maj. Gen. Richard Montgomery attack the British fortress at Quebec City while a snowstorm rages. The assault fails. Arnold, who led his men on an epic, hardship-filled journey up Maine’s Kennebec […]

Dec. 30, 2006: The $85 million Penobscot Narrows Bridge, which carries Route 1 across the Penobscot River and links the towns of Prospect and Verona Island, opens to traffic for the first time. The cable-stayed 2,120-foot bridge features two 430-foot-tall towers, the western one of which contains the world’s highest public bridge observation deck. Dave […]

Dec. 29, 2012: Three couples get married and a fourth obtains a marriage license early on a Saturday morning at Bangor City Hall, amid a crowd of about 50 well-wishers. Normally city offices aren’t open Saturdays, but this is an exception. Special business hours were scheduled because this is the first day on which marriages […]

Dec. 28, 1814: A convention of Democrat-Republicans from several Oxford County towns is convened. Outraged about the inability of the federal government to expel the British from eastern Maine during the ongoing War of 1812, about the Massachusetts authorities’ unwillingness to aid in that effort, they conclude that the only sensible course of action to […]

Dec. 27, 2005: The Nature Conservancy announces it has bought nearly 10,000 acres of forested land in Hancock County for $2.2 million and that it plans to preserve the property. The purchase is emblematic of many other land preservation steps taken by various organizations in this period. The Nature Conservancy land, called the Spring River […]

Dec. 26, 1888: The Central Maine General Hospital – known today as Central Maine Medical Center – is incorporated in Lewiston. D.J. Callahan is sworn in at an afternoon meeting as secretary of the board of corporators. The institution is qualified under the law to hold property of a value up to $100,000 – equal […]

Dec. 25, 1870: “Never has a sadder Christmas dawned on any city,” Livermore native Elihu Washburne writes in Paris while serving as the U.S. minister to France. “The sufferings … exceed by far anything we have seen.” On the 99th day of the Prussian army’s siege of the city during the Franco-Prussian War, Washburne, one […]

Dec. 24, 2018: Incumbent U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, drops his federal lawsuit claiming that he, not Democrat Jared Golden, should have won the Nov. 6 election for his seat. Golden was declared the winner under Maine’s new ranked-choice voting system. Running for re-election against three challengers, Poliquin was the top vote-getter, but fell […]

Dec. 23, 1831: The Augusta newspaper The Age publishes its first issue, just in time to capitalize on the impending arrival of state government and the printing contracts it is likely to offer. In the 1850s, Melville Weston Fuller (1833-1910) is a part-owner of the newspaper. The Age competes for several decades with the Kennebec […]