The territory of Maine has been inhabited by
Indigenous populations for thousands of years after the glaciers retreated during the
last ice age. At the time of European arrival, several
Algonquian-speaking nations governed the area and these nations are now known as the
Wabanaki Confederacy. The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on
Saint Croix Island, founded by
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived
Popham Colony, established by the
Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate and conflict with the local
Indigenous people caused many to fail. As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived.
Loyalist and
Patriot forces contended for Maine's territory during the
American Revolution. During the
War of 1812, the largely undefended eastern region of Maine was occupied by British forces with the goal of annexing it to
Canada via the
Colony of New Ireland, but returned to the United States following failed British offensives on the northern border, mid-Atlantic and south which produced a
peace treaty that restored the pre-war boundaries. Maine was part of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820 when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become a separate state. On March 15, 1820, under the
Missouri Compromise, it was
admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.
A commemorative coin craze in 1936 saw some coins authorized by the
United States Congress that were of mainly local significance; the York County issue was one of these. Legislation permitting the half dollar passed Congress without opposition in the first half of 1936. Maine artist Walter H. Rich designed the issue; his work has garnered mixed praise and dislike from numismatic authors. (Full article...)
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First page of the first issue: January 1, 1828
The Yankee (later retitled The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette) was one of the first cultural publications in the United States, founded and edited by
John Neal (1793–1876), and published in
Portland, Maine as a weekly periodical and later converted to a longer, monthly format. Its two-year run concluded at the end of 1829. The magazine is considered unique for its independent journalism at the time.
Neal used creative control of the magazine to improve his social status, help establish the American
gymnastics movement, cover
national politics, and critique
American literature,
art,
theater, and social issues. Essays by Neal on American art and theater anticipated major changes and movements in those fields realized in the following decades. Conflicting opinions published in The Yankee on the
cultural identity of
Maine and
New England presented readers with a complex portrait of the region. (Full article...)
Darabont purchased the film rights to King's story in 1987, but development did not begin until five years later, when he wrote the script over an eight-week period. Two weeks after submitting his script to
Castle Rock Entertainment, Darabont secured a $25 million budget to produce The Shawshank Redemption, which started pre-production in January 1993. While the film is set in
Maine,
principal photography took place from June to August 1993 almost entirely in
Mansfield, Ohio, with the
Ohio State Reformatory serving as the eponymous penitentiary. The project attracted many stars for the role of Andy, including
Tom Hanks,
Tom Cruise, and
Kevin Costner.
Thomas Newman provided the film's score. (Full article...)
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Detail of a 1795 map, overlaid with Arnold's expedition route: *A: Cambridge *B: Newburyport *C: Fort Western *D: Fort Halifax *E: Great Carrying Place *F: Height of land *G: Lake Mégantic This map does not accurately represent the area around the height of land and Lake Mégantic. In September 1775, early in the
American Revolutionary War, Colonel
Benedict Arnold led a force of 1,100
Continental Army troops on an expedition from
Cambridge in the
Province of Massachusetts Bay to the gates of
Quebec City. The expedition was part of a two-pronged
invasion of the British
Province of Quebec, and passed through the wilderness of what is now
Maine. The other expedition invaded Quebec from
Lake Champlain, led by
Richard Montgomery.
Unanticipated problems beset the expedition as soon as it left the last significant colonial outposts in Maine. The
portages up the
Kennebec River proved grueling, and the boats frequently leaked, ruining
gunpowder and spoiling food supplies. More than a third of the men turned back before reaching the height of land between the Kennebec and
Chaudière rivers. The areas on either side of the height of land were swampy tangles of lakes and streams, and the traversal was made more difficult by bad weather and inaccurate maps. Many of the troops lacked experience handling boats in
white water, which led to the destruction of more boats and supplies in the descent to the
Saint Lawrence River via the fast-flowing Chaudière. (Full article...)
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Portrait of Willis by
Mathew Brady studios, circa mid-1850s
Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis, was an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including
Edgar Allan Poe and
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. His brother was the composer
Richard Storrs Willis and his sister Sara wrote under the name
Fanny Fern.
Harriet Jacobs wrote her autobiography while being employed as his children's nurse.
Born in
Portland,
Maine, Willis came from a family of publishers. His grandfather
Nathaniel Willis owned newspapers in Massachusetts and Virginia, and his father
Nathaniel Willis was the founder of Youth's Companion, the first newspaper specifically for children. Willis developed an interest in literature while attending
Yale College and began publishing poetry. After graduation, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the New York Mirror. He eventually moved to New York and began to build his literary reputation. Working with multiple publications, he was earning about $100 per article and between $5,000 and $10,000 per year. In 1846, he started his own publication, the Home Journal, which was eventually renamed Town & Country. Shortly after, Willis moved to a home on the
Hudson River where he lived a semi-retired life until his death in 1867. (Full article...)
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Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American
Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of
Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a
Quaker family in
Portland, Maine. From a young age, he believed
alcohol to be the cause of many of society's problems and wanted to ban it through legislation. In 1850, Dow was elected president of the Maine Temperance Union, and the next year he was elected
mayor of Portland. Soon after, largely due to Dow's efforts, the
state legislature banned the sale and production of alcohol in what became known as the
Maine law. Serving twice as mayor of Portland, Dow enforced the law with vigor and called for increasingly harsh penalties for violators. In 1855,
his opponents rioted and he ordered the
state militia to fire on the crowd. One man was killed and several wounded, and when public reaction to the violence turned against Dow, he chose not to seek reelection.
Dow was later elected to two terms in the
Maine House of Representatives, but retired after a financial scandal. He joined the
Union Army shortly after the outbreak of the
American Civil War in 1861, eventually attaining the rank of
brigadier general. He was wounded at the
siege of Port Hudson and later captured. After being
exchanged for another officer in 1864, Dow resigned from the military and devoted himself once more to prohibition. He spoke across the United States,
Canada, and Great Britain in support of the cause. In
1880, Dow headed the
Prohibition Party ticket for President of the United States. After losing the election, he continued to write and speak on behalf of the prohibition movement for the rest of his life until his death in Portland at the age of 93. (Full article...)
Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a "
Goodwill Ambassador", becoming known as America's Youngest Ambassador and subsequently participating in
peacemaking activities in Japan. With the assistance of her father, Arthur (an academic), she wrote a book titled Journey to the Soviet Union, which chronicled her visit to the country. She later became a child actress, hosting a child-oriented special on the
1984 United States presidential election for
The Disney Channel and playing a co-starring role in the television series Lime Street. Smith died at the age of 13 in 1985, onboard
Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808, which crashed short of the runway on final approach to the
Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport in Maine. (Full article...)
After graduating from
Williams College, Brown joined the family corporation, then known as the Berlin Mills Company, and became manager of the Woods Products Division, overseeing the company's woodlands and logging operations. He became an early advocate for
sustainable forest management practices, was a member of the
New Hampshire Forestry Commission from 1909 until 1952, and served on the boards of several forestry organizations. As chair of the Forestry Commission, Brown helped send sawmills to Europe during World War I to assist the war effort. He was influenced by the
Progressive movement, instituting employee benefits such as company-sponsored care for injured workers that predated modern
workers' compensation laws. As a
Republican, he served as a
presidential elector for New Hampshire in 1924. (Full article...)
This is a
Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.
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R.D. Hume in the 1890s
Robert Deniston Hume (October 31, 1845 – November 25, 1908) was a
cannery owner, pioneer
hatchery operator, politician, author, and self-described "pygmy monopolist" who controlled
salmon fishing for 32 years on the lower
Rogue River in U.S. state of
Oregon. Born in
Augusta, Maine, and reared by foster parents on a farm, Hume moved at age 18 to
San Francisco to join a salmon-canning business started by two of his brothers. They later re-located to
Astoria on the
Columbia River, where they prospered. After the death of his first wife and their two young children, Hume moved again and started anew in
Gold Beach, at the mouth of the Rogue.
In 1877 Hume bought rights to a Rogue River
fishery, then built a
salmon cannery and many other structures and acquired all of the
tidelands bordering the lower 12 miles (19 km) of the river. He remarried, invested in a small fleet of ships and a salmon hatchery and expanded his business interests to include a store, hotel, newspaper, and many other enterprises in Gold Beach and in the nearby community of
Wedderburn, which he founded. Canning, shipping, and selling hundreds of tons of salmon over the years, he became known as the Salmon King of Oregon. (Full article...)
Born in
Portland, Maine, Loring joined the
United States Army in 1942 and was quickly selected to undergo pilot training. He spent several months stationed in
Puerto Rico before being transferred to duty in the
United Kingdom in 1944. There, he flew 55 combat missions in
P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft before being shot down and serving six months as a
Nazi Germanprisoner of war. By the outset of the Korean War, Loring was working in an administrative role in the United States, but by 1952 had been transferred to combat duty in Korea. (Full article...)
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Tropical Storm Floyd near landfall in southern New York
The effects of Hurricane Floyd in New England stretched across the region from
Connecticut to
Maine and included two casualties. Floyd, once a large and powerful hurricane, made landfall in
North Carolina and weakened as it tracked northward along the
U.S. East Coast. By September 17, 1999, the storm, downgraded in strength to a tropical storm, was situated over New England. It produced heavy rainfall and gusty winds throughout the entire region, leading to widespread downing of trees and extensive power outages before it moved away later that day. In
Danbury, Connecticut, Floyd triggered severe flooding, considered the worst in 40 years, that damaged hundreds of homes. Precipitation in some areas amounted to 10 in (250 mm), with wind gusts approaching hurricane force in
Massachusetts. Damage totaled $4.819 million. (Full article...)
Grace Harriet Macurdy (September 12, 1866 – October 23, 1946) was an American classicist, and the first American woman to gain a PhD from
Columbia University. She taught at
Vassar College for 44 years, despite a lengthy conflict with
Abby Leach, her first employer.
Macurdy eventually rose to become chair of the department of Greek before embarking upon an illustrious international career. One of her major areas of research was royal women during the
Hellenistic period. Macurdy shaped the field of classics and the study of ancient history by pulling together both
material evidence and
textual evidence as sources in her pioneering studies of individual women. (Full article...)
Following the outbreak of the war, British authorities enlisted
Loyalist merchant Ichabod Jones to supply the troops who were under the
Siege of Boston. Two of his merchant ships arrived in Machias on June 2, 1775, accompanied by the British armed
sloop HMS Margaretta (sometimes also spelled Margueritta or Marguerite), commanded by Midshipman James Moore. The townspeople of Machias disapproved of Jones' intentions and arrested him. They also tried to arrest Moore, but he escaped through the harbor. The townspeople seized one of Jones' ships, armed it alongside a second local ship, and sailed out to meet Moore. After a short confrontation, Moore was fatally wounded, and his vessel and crew were captured. (Full article...)
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WCSH (channel 6) is a
television station in
Portland, Maine, United States, affiliated with
NBC and owned by
Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Congress Square in
Downtown Portland, and its transmitter is located on Winn Mountain in
Sebago. Together with
WLBZ (channel 2) in
Bangor, which simulcasts most of WCSH's local newscasts, it is known as News Center Maine.
WCSH is the oldest operating television station in Portland, signing on in December 1953. It was an outgrowth of
WCSH radio, one of NBC's charter affiliates when it was constituted as a radio network in 1926, and broadcast from its namesake, the
Congress Square Hotel in downtown Portland, for nearly 25 years. Founded by the Rines family and sold to Tegna predecessor
Gannett Company in 1997, it has generally been the highest-rated station in TV news in the market since the mid-1980s. (Full article...)
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are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.
... that John Bunker was inspired to propagate old apple tree varieties after encountering Black Oxford apples while managing the
food co-op in
Belfast, Maine?
The list below, for each city, shows the population in 2010, the population estimate of 2019, the growth/shrinking percentage between the three, and the date of incorporation as a city.