Nov. 21, 1921: The first edition of the Portland Press Herald is published. It is a merger of the former Portland Herald and the Portland Daily Press, which was founded in 1862. Guy Gannett, an Augusta businessman, after being approached by owners of several papers in a cutthroat environment of declining revenue, eventually bought the […]

Nov. 20, 1652: Stamping out a 3-year-old effort to form an independent English province of Maine, Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities convince 41 residents of Kittery to submit unconditionally to Massachusetts. A few days later, they exact a similar pledge of loyalty from residents of nearby Agamenticus – now the town of York. In doing so, […]

Nov. 19, 1819: Former President Thomas Jefferson writes a letter to William King, a leading Maine statehood advocate and future Maine governor, thanking him for sending Jefferson a draft of the proposed Maine Constitution, being prepared in conjunction with Maine’s anticipated admission to statehood in 1820. While praising most of the document, Jefferson faults its […]

Nov. 18, 1833: Ebenezer Dole, his brother Daniel Dole and others meet in Hallowell to form Maine’s first anti-slavery group, called the Hallowell Anti-slavery Society. The society’s debut occurs about a year after William Lloyd Garrison, one of the more prominent American orators calling for the abolition of slavery, conducted a speaking tour across the […]

Nov. 17, 2018: Thornton Academy’s football team completes its first unbeaten season since 1986 with a lopsided 49-14 win against Portland High School in Maine’s Class A state championship game. The 11-0 string of Trojans’ victories is all the more impressive because opposing teams never even held a temporary lead over Thornton in any game […]

Nov. 16, 1975: Television crews and reporters converge on the Kennebec River to record the last major log drive in the contiguous 48 U.S. states. The Maine Legislature passed a law in 1971 banning log drives after Oct. 1, 1976, but in 1975 the practice already is dying out for economic reasons, given that it […]

Nov. 15, 1888: The Maine Steamship Co. accepts a $160,000 bid from Bath Iron Works for the construction of the steamship Cottage City. It is the 4-year-old Bath shipyard’s first shipbuilding project. The vessel is delivered to the owners in May 1890. It carries passengers between Portland and New York for more than seven years […]

Nov. 14, 1899: Walter Wyman, who studied engineering, and Harvey Eaton, a lawyer, begin operating the Oakland Electric Light Co., which they had bought for $4,500 seven days earlier. The company eventually buys up other electric companies and becomes the Central Maine Power Co., Maine’s largest electric utility. Construction of dams began in Oakland in […]

Nov. 13, 2000: The federal government lists the wild Atlantic salmon as an endangered species in Maine. The decision, made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, grants federal protection for the species, which at the time is believed to have dwindled to fewer than 150 fish. Gov. Angus […]

Nov. 12, 1932: An equestrian statue of Leeds native Oliver Otis Howard is unveiled at the site of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg, in which Howard fought as commander of XI Army Corps. Pennsylvania Gov. Gifford Pinchot and Maine Gov. William Tudor Gardiner, who will become a wartime Army officer himself a decade later […]