Feb. 18, 1795: Lewiston is incorporated as a town. It becomes a city on March 15, 1861. Today it is Maine’s second-largest city, as it has been since the 1880 Census.
Feb. 18, 1978: In an event broadcast live on local television, President Jimmy Carter participates in an evening question-and-answer session with about 2,200 people at the Bangor Auditorium.
Carter, who also attended a Bangor fundraising reception earlier for U.S. Sen. William Hathaway, D-Maine, spends the night at the home of Robert Murray, an appliance salesman and chairman of the Penobscot County Democratic Executive Committee, and his wife.
The next day, Carter addresses about 500 people attending a Democratic Party fundraising breakfast at Husson College – now Husson University – in Bangor, then leaves Maine.
Joseph Owen is a retired copy desk chief of the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal and board member of the Kennebec Historical Society. He can be contacted at: jowen@mainetoday.com.
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