Saturday, October 27 — In light of the ever-increasing popularity of New Hampshire’s State Motto, we direct the reader’s attention to the item, below, from 1791: “Insurrections have broke out in Switzerland—the motto on the buttons is, ‘Live free, or die.’”
Seventeen years after that item was first published, General John Stark (right) used the same phrase when writing to his comrades. We can’t say for sure whether or not General Stark first saw this phrase in our paper, but it’s entirely likely he was a subscriber.
The possibility cannot be ruled out: “Live Free or Die” may be New Hampshire’s State Motto because General Stark read it in the Gazette.
2005—Harriet Miers throws in the Supreme Court towel.
1972—Richard Nixon pocket vetoes a bill to raise the veterans health care budget by $85 million.
1969—Hoping to convince the Soviets he’s dangerously unstable, Richard Nixon secretly orders eighteen B-52s armed with H-bombs to spend the next three days flying around the North Pole.
1967—Rev. Philip Berrigan and three friends pour duck blood on draft records in Baltimore.
1965—“We must never forget,” says Richard Nixon, “that if the war in Vietnam is lost … the right of free speech will be extinguished throughout the world.”
1962—As one American U-2 is shot down over Cuba, another strays over the USSR. Robert Kennedy cuts a deal with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
1951—“There is no question,” says U.S. General J. Lawton Collins, “that the Communist menace in French Indo-China has been stopped.”
1947—“You Bet Your Life,” with Groucho Marx, premieres.
1939—Birth of John Cleese.
1791—The New Hampshire Gazette reports that “Insurrections have broke out in Switzerland—the motto on the buttons is, ‘Live free, or die.’”