Timeline

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BANGOR DAILY NEWS YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Timeline

Local, national and world events

*Bangor Daily News Events

*1889 | Bangor Daily News founded June 18 at 86-92 Exchange St. by shipping magnate Thomas J. Stewart and other stockholders

1889 | Bangor Street Railway begins trolley service

1892 | Bangor General Hospital, now EMMC, opens. Freese’s department store opens on Main Street.

*1895 | J. Norman Towle, and others, buy newspaper from Stewart family, beginning family ownership that continues into 21st century.

1896 | First Bangor Symphony Orchestra performance

1898 | Battleship Maine sunk in Havana; Spanish-American War begins.

*1900 | Bangor Daily News buys out Bangor Daily Whig and Courier.

1902 | Penobscot River flooding destroys Bangor-Brewer bridge. President Theodore Roosevelt visits Bangor State Fair.

1903 | Wright Brothers’ first flight

1910 | President William Howard Taft in Bangor

*1911 | Great Bangor Fire of April 30 destroys part of Exchange Street but BDN still publishes May 1 edition.

1913 | Bangor Public Library opens on Harlow Street.

*1914 | Jan. 28 fire destroys BDN building; BDN publishes at Bangor Daily Commercial offices on Main Street.

1917 | U.S. enters World War I.

*1923 | Kenduskeag Stream flooding damages press room of newspaper building.

1923 | WABI radio begins broadcasting.

1927 | Lindbergh flies solo from New York to Paris.

1929 | Stock market crash

*1930 | Fred Jordan takes over as BDN publisher from his father-in-law, J. Norman Towle.

1931 | Pan American Airways begins flights to Bangor.

1934 | Amelia Earhart hosts Bangor airport flights.

1935 | Final trip of the Boston boats on Penobscot River

*1936 | Jordan names John M. O’Connell managing editor; Jordan-O’Connell team lasts 11 years.

*1937 | BDN publishes extra Oct. 12 edition on FBI shooting of Brady Gang.

1941 | Pearl Harbor attacked; U.S. enters World War II.

1942 | Dow Air Force Base opens.

*1944 | Editor O’Connell goes to Europe as war correspondent, writing daily column “Victory Bound With Our Maine Boys.”

1945 | World War II ends.

*1947 | Lillis Towle Jordan takes over as publisher following death of husband Fred.

1953 | Bangor’s first licensed telecast

*1955 | Paper moves from Exchange Street to new home at 491 Main St.; Richard K.Warren named publisher.

1961 | Berlin Wall built.

1962 | New Year’s Eve blizzard shuts down paper for only time in its history.

1963 | John F. Kennedy speaks in Orono one month before assassination.

1964 | Bangor voters authorize Urban Renewal project.

1968 | Bangor International Airport opens at former Dow Field.

1974 | President Nixon resigns; Vietnam War ends.

*1974 | Computers begin replacing paper’s hot-type publishing process.

1976 | Kenduskeag Stream flooding, dramatic rescue

1978 | Bangor Mall opens on Stillwater Avenue.

*1984 | Richard J.Warren becomes fourth-generation publisher.

1986 | Veterans Remembrance Bridge dedicated, third link between Bangor-Brewer.

*1989 | Centennial of BDN’s founding; paper begins publishing at new press facility in Hampden.

1991 | Persian Gulf War; returning troops greeted at Bangor International Airport.

*1997 | BDN launches online Web site service.

*1998 | Ice storm devastates Maine; paper publishes limited edition.

*2001 | The Weekly is taken over by Bangor Publishing Co., paper inserted into the BDN.

*2002 | National Folk Festival begins three-year Bangor run, sponsored in part by BDN.

*2004 | Bangor Daily News celebrates 115 years of publication.

Images

April 19, 1906 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News after the San Francisco earthquake

1911 | Downtown Bangor after the Great Fire

1914 | Jan. 28 fire destroys Bangor Daily News building on Exchange Street.

1920 | The composing room, Bangor Daily News, Exchange Street

1923 | Postcard view of Broad Street from City Hall Tower, Bangor

Oct. 12, 1937 | Sign from Dakin Sporting Goods Co. store. Bullet hole (bottom right) result of shootout with federal agents.

Oct. 13, 1937 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News after the killing of Al Brady, one of America’s most wanted gangsters

1938 | Bangor’s West Market Square and Broad Street

July 26, 1939 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News after young Donn Fendler was found alive deep in the Maine woods. He had been lost for nine days.

1940 | Campaign button of winning Roosevelt campaign

Aug. 14, 1945 | Crowds on the corner of State and Harlow Streets celebrate the end of World War II.

Aug. 15, 1945 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News announcing the end of World War II

1947 | At work in the Bangor Daily News newsroom

1959 | The Bangor Daily News mailroom

Nov. 23-24, 1963 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News

1988 | Breaking ground in Hampden

Jan. 9, 1998 | Front page of the Bangor Daily News during a rare limited edition run

2004 | The Bangor Daily News pressroom

2004 | Bangor’s West Market Square and Broad Street

Community outreach

The Bangor Daily News is committed to maintaining the highest quality of life for residents of northern and eastern Maine. Through NEWS charities, and sponsorship and support of such efforts as the National Folk Festival, the Maine Center for the Arts, and the United Way, the NEWS contributes to the well-being of the communities it serves.

Newspapers in Education

NIE is a cooperative venture between schools and the Bangor Daily News to promote the use of the newspaper as a “living textbook” that is a key resource for teaching concepts and skills in all subject areas and at all grade levels.

The Bangor Daily News core circulation area comprises eight counties, with papers distributed in southern Maine as well.

Bangor Daily News bureaus

Madawaska

Presque Isle

Houlton

Sangerville

Pittsfield

Katahdin

Machias

Ellsworth

Belfast

Rockport

Bangor

Calais

Augusta

Bangor Publishing Co. owns the Bangor Daily News and Northeast Publishing in Presque Isle, publisher of several weekly newspapers.

(c) 2004 BANGOR DAILY NEWS ? RESEARCH: RICHARD SHAW, MARK WOODWARD, CHARLIE CAMPO ? PHOTOGRAPHS: KEVIN BENNETT, LINDA COAN O’KRESIK, JOHN CLARKE RUSS ? DESIGN: JON FERLAND, ERIC ZELZ ? ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS: AMANDA CYR, ELIZABETH HANSEN, KIMBERLY WHITMORE, SHELLEY SUND ? SOURCE: BDN RESEARCH; Woodsmen and Whigs, Historic Images of Bangor, Maineby Abigail Ewing Zelz, Marilyn Zoidis.