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Maine stories of the century: The results

Copyright © 2000 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

1. 1998: As many as 690,000 people are left without electricity after a January ice storm. (292 votes)

2. 1948: Margaret Chase Smith is elected U.S. senator, the first woman in U.S. history to win a full Senate term in her own right. (271)

3. 1920: Maine's women become the first in the nation to vote, in the September state election, after passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. (230)

4. 1946: Groundbreaking takes place for the Maine State Turnpike, a $13 million, four-lane highway planned from Kittery to Ft. Kent. Original designs call for airplane landing strips to be built alongside the lanes. (201)

5. 1931: Some 6,000 acres are given to state by Gov. Percival P. Baxter, the nucleus of today's Baxter State Park. (198)

6. 1984: Joan Benoit of Maine wins the first-ever women's Olympic marathon in Los Angeles. (183)

7. 1947: The worst drought in 30 years: Wildfires cause millions of dollars in damage throughout the state, killing 16, obliterating 16 communities, and leaving 2,500 homeless. (173)

8. 1983: Eleven-year-old Samantha Smith from Manchester is invited to the Soviet Union by President Andropov and meets with Moscow children on a peace mission. Two years later, a Bar Harbor Airlines plane carrying Smith, 13, crashes in Auburn, killing all aboard. (173)

9. 1900: The Great Northern Paper mill is built in Millinocket, the world's largest mill of its kind. (122)

10. 1919: Lafayette National Park, later to become Acadia National Park, is established on Mount Desert Island. (120)

11. 1933: The Great Depression hits Maine hard. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday" that freezes all Maine bank accounts for two weeks. Three of Portland's biggest banks go under. (116)

12. 1918: A worldwide flu epidemic kills 4,000 in Maine. (111)

13. 1941: Ground is broken for the Todd-Bath Shipbuilding Corp. yards in South Portland. From 1941 to 1945, as the New England Shipbuilding Corp., the East and West yards employ more than 30,000 people, building 266 Liberty Ships for World War II. (111)

14. 1952: The Great Blizzard of '52, one of the worst snowstorms in the history, drops 23 inches of snow in 36 hours. Hundreds abandon cars on the Maine Turnpike and five Mainers die. (106)

15. 1980: President Jimmy Carter signs the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, paying $81.5 million to Maine's Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes and ending their claims to millions of acres. (100)

16. 1961: Amid great public outcry, Portland's fabled Union Station is demolished. The loss of the beloved station sparks the birth of Greater Portland Landmarks and the historic preservation movement in Maine. (99)

17. 1954: In a statewide referendum, Maine Indians living on reservations are granted the right to vote. (92)

18. 1988: Sen. George Mitchell is elected Senate majority leader. (84)

19. 1938: The mighty hurricane of '38, "The Wind that Shook the World," strikes Maine a glancing blow, leaving half the state without phones or lights for three days. (82)

20. 1972: The Maine Yankee nuclear power plant opens in Wiscasset. (78)

21. 1954: In a stunning upset, Edmund S. Muskie is elected the first Democratic governor since 1937. Muskie goes on to win a U.S. Senate seat in 1958. (72)

22. 1977: Maine passes an anti-billboard law. (71)

23. 1997: Maine Yankee closes. (69)

24. 1925: WCSH radio in Portland becomes Maine's first commercial radio station. (68)

25. 1962: The first trans-Atlantic TV broadcast via satellite connects France and the Telstar Earth Station in Andover, Maine. (68)

26. 1974: James Longley of Lewiston wins gubernatorial race; he is Maine's first independent governor and the nation's first independent governor in more than 35 years. (67)

27. 1996: Retiring U.S. Sen. William Cohen is nominated by President Clinton to be secretary of defense. (66)

28. 1969: Legislature enacts state's first income tax. (62)

29. 1995: Gov. King signs into law a bill making it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals in Maine. (60)

30. 1996: The 560-foot oil tanker Julie N strikes Portland Bridge, spilling 180,000 gallons of oil into Portland Harbor and the Fore River, the worst spill in the harbor's history. (59)

31. 1972: In the worst oil spill in Maine history to date, the Norwegian tanker Tamano strikes Soldier's Ledge in Hussey Sound. More than 100,000 gallons of oil pour into Casco Bay. (57)

32. 1971: The Maine Mall in South Portland is dedicated. (56)

33. 1927: Col. Charles A. Lindbergh lands on the beach in Old Orchard. He addresses crowd of 25,000 people in Deering Oaks. (53)

34. 1987: After hanging for years in a small gallery in Portland, Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" is sold for $53.9 million, the highest price for work of art at that time. (50)

35. 1923: Boston and Maine Airways opens the first regular air service to Maine. (49)

36. 1964: Democrats win control of the Legislature for the first time in 50 years; a Democratic presidential candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson, carries Maine for the first time since 1912. (48)

37. 1960: Passenger train service is abandoned by the Maine Central Railroad. (46)

38. 1976: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct. (46)

39. 1968: U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie of Rumford is nominated to run as vice president on the same ticket as Hubert Humphrey. (44)

40. 1915: The Maine-built windjammer William B. Frye is the first American merchant vessel to be sunk by German U-boats in World War I. (41)

41. 1980: Edmund Muskie resigns from the Senate to become U.S. secretary of state. George J. Mitchell is appointed to take Muskie's seat. (41)

42. 1953: WABI-TV, Bangor (Channel 5), Maine's first television station, broadcasts its first full program. (40)

43. 1994: The Portland Sea Dogs, the city's first minor league ball team since the Portland Pilots in the 1940s, play their first game in Hadlock Field. (40)

44. 1972: Gerald E. Talbot, D-Portland, is elected to the Maine House of Representatives. He is the first black elected to the Maine Legislature in the state's history. (39)

45. 1995: Elizabeth Noyce, the Bremen philanthropist who founded Maine Bank & Trust, buys almost six acres of downtown Portland, one of the biggest real estate deals in city history. (38)

46. 1994: Angus King is elected governor, the second independent governor in 20 years. (37)

47. 1997: The new Casco Bay Bridge opens between Portland and South Portland. (36)

48. 1912: On Sept. 7 the first airplane flies over Portland – a biplane piloted by George A. Gray. (34)

49. 1955: Maine's first shopping center opens at Mill Creek, South Portland. (32)

50. 1977: Fishing interests get passage of the 200-mile offshore limit. (32)

51. 1934: State Prohibition is repealed, one year after national Prohibition is repealed. (29)

52. 1914: The only Maine church specifically for blacks, Green Memorial AME Zion, is built in Portland. (27)

53. 1987: International Paper workers union launches the best organized and most militant strike in Maine history. (26)

54. 1993: Referendum imposes term limits on state legislators and some officials. (25)

55. 1993: The Portland Pirates play their first home game at the Civic Center, marking the return of professional hockey to Maine. (25)

56. 1907: The first Maine theater devoted to motion pictures, the Savoy in Portland, opens. (22)

57. 1941: The first mile of the Portland-Montreal Pipeline, a national defense effort, is laid in South Portland. (22)

58. 1944: On July 11, Lt. Philip I. Russell's Army bomber crashes into the Redbank trailer camp in South Portland, killing 15, including himself, and injuring at least 19. (17)

59. 1979: Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crashes in fog along Maine's rocky coast at Owls Head, killing 17 of 18 people aboard. (15)

60. 1992: The Maine Mariners hockey team departs for Rhode Island to become the Providence Bruins. (11)