WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B
By Maria Lovato
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Maine, “the colony of a col-
ony,” kicked off a celebration
Tuesday for the 200th anniver-
sary of its statehood and inde-
pendence from Massachusetts.
Governor Janet Mills trav-
eled to four cities to start the
celebrations. The kickoff was
timed to roughly coincide with
the anniversary of the vote by
Mainers to separate from Mas-
sachusetts on July 26, 1819,
said Stephen Bromage, execu-
tive director of the Maine His-
torical Society.
“Maine has a proud and sto-
ried history, and our bicenten-
nial offers us the opportunity
not only to honor it, but to re-
commit ourselves to the values
that shaped us as a state and as
a people,” Mills, a member of
the Maine Bicentennial Com-
mission, said in a statement.
Mills, a Democrat serving
her first term, started her day
at 8 a.m. in Presque Isle at the
Sargent Family Community
Center. There, the Presque Isle
Fire Department raised the bi-
centennial flag, the Bicenten-
nial Commission posted on In-
stagram.
The festivities continued at
Broadway Park in Bangor at 11
a.m., where a commemorative
bench was installed with its
pine grove, the commission
tweeted.
Stopping at Deering Oaks
Park in Portland at 2:30 p.m.,
Mills helped plant a tricenten-
nial pine grove, according to
tweets from the city of Port-
land.
The tour ended at Mill Park
in Augusta at 5 p.m. At each
location, Mills also announced
programs and events for the
next year and a half of bicen-
tennial celebrations, the Bicen-
tennial Commission said in a
statement.
TheDistrictofMainewasa
part of Massachusetts since its
founding, but residents started
to yearn for independence af-
ter the War of 1812. Mainers
felt that Massachusetts did not
adequately protect them from
British invasion and that their
economic development was
being hindered, said Bernard
Fishman, director of the Maine
State Museum and member of
the Bicentennial Commission.
However, independence
was not instant. It took a series
of votes before a majority was
reached. Maine officially be-
came a state in March of 1820,
Fishman said.
The Missouri Compromise
also played an important rolein the timing of Maine’s inde-
pendence. With Missouri en-
tering the union as a slave
state, Maine could enter as a
free state to maintain the bal-
ance of slave to free states,
Fishman said.
The anniversary celebra-
tion is “a party, but it’s a
thoughtful party, because
there’s a lot of history in-
volved,” he said.
While Fishman said he
wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of
people didn’t know Maine was
once a part of Massachusetts,
he recognized the unique rela-
tionship the two states have.
“There’s a tongue-in-cheek
rivalry,” he said. “Maine was
the colony of a colony and still
resents that.”
The bicentennial is an op-
portunity to celebrate what
makes Maine special, such as
its residents’ fierce indepen-
dent spirit, but it is also a
chance to look to the future,
Fishman said.
Maine is the largest state by
area in New England, and it is
also the whitest and has the
oldest median age, Fishman
said. But Maine is in a period
of rapid change, so this occa-
sion is an opportunity to re-
mind residents that “we are all
one state,” he said.“A lot of the Maine popula-
tion lives in really rural areas... so there’s an attempt to try
to recognize these different ar-
eas,” Fishman said.
The Maine Historical Soci-
ety is celebrating the occasion
with an exhibit called “Hold-
ing Up the Sky,” which explores
the Wabanaki Native Ameri-
can confederation, Bromage
said.
An array of other initiatives
will take place in 2020 to cele-
brate the historic year, includ-
ing a parade, concert series,
smartphone app, and time
capsule, according to the
Maine200 website.
There is also a statewide
grant program, which will pro-
vide grants to communities for
initiatives that will benefit
their city or town, Fishman
said.
“[Mainers are] very inde-
pendent and kind of gentle
and unhurried, but steadfastly
self-directed,” he said. “Maine
is full of very polite, un-anx-
iouspeoplebutveryzealousof
being able to direct their own
lives.”
Maria Lovato can be reached
at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter
@maria_lovato99.Mainemarks200yearsof independence
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFFFATAL FIRE IN
PEPPERELL —One
woman died and five
people were injured
during a four-alarm
fire that started
Tuesday morning at
an apartment
building, officials
said. Firefighters
from 13 surrounding
communities
responded to support
the Pepperell Fire
Department. The
cause of the fire does
not appear to be
suspicious, officials
said.Today is Wednesday, July 31,
the 212th day of 2019. There
are 153 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Don Mur-
ray is 90. Jazz composer-guitar-
ist Kenny Burrell is 88. Actress
GeraldineChaplinis75.For-
mer movie studio executive
Sherry Lansing is 75. Former
Massachusetts governor Wil-
liam Weld is 74. Singer Gary
Lewis is 74. Tennis Hall of Fam-
er Evonne Goolagong Cawley is
- Former Massachusetts gov-
ernor Deval Patrick is 63. Entre-
preneur Mark Cuban is 61. Mu-
sician Fatboy Slim is 56. Author
J.K. Rowling is 54. Country
singer-musician Zac Brown is - Actor-producer-writer B.J.
Novak is 40. NHL center Evgeni
Malkin is 33. Hip-hop artist Lil
Uzi Vert is 25.
ºIn 1715, a fleet of Spanish
ships carrying gold, silver, and
jewelry sank during a hurricane
off the east Florida coast; of
some 2,500 crew members,
more than 1,000 died.
ºIn 1777, during the Revo-
lutionary War, the Marquis de
Lafayette, a 19-year-old French
nobleman, was made a major-
general in the American Conti-
nental Army.
ºIn 1954, Pakistan’s K2 was
conquered as two members of
an Italian expedition, Achille
Compagnoni and Lino Lacedel-
li, reached the summit.
ºIn 1964, the American
space probe Ranger 7 reached
the moon, transmitting pic-
tures back to Earth before im-
pacting the lunar surface.
ºIn 1970, ‘‘The Huntley-
Brinkley Report’’ came to an
end after nearly 14 years as co-
anchor Chet Huntley signed off
for the last time; the broadcast
was renamed ‘‘NBC Nightly
News.’’
ºIn 1971, Apollo 15 crew
members David Scott and
James Irwin became the first
astronauts to use a lunar rover
on the surface of the moon.
ºIn 1972, Democratic vice
presidential candidate Thomas
Eagleton withdrew from the
ticket with George McGovern
following disclosures that Ea-
gleton had once undergone psy-
chiatric treatment.
ºIn 1991, President George
H.W. Bush and Soviet President
Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed
the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty in Moscow.
ºIn 2002, a bomb exploded
inside a cafeteria at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, killing
nine people, including five
Americans.
ºIn 2008, scientists report-
ed the Phoenix spacecraft had
confirmed the presence of ice in
Martian soil.
ºIn 2014, the CIA’s insis-tence that it did not spy on its
Senate overseers collapsed with
the release of a stark report by
the agency’s internal watchdog
documenting improper com-
puter surveillance and obstruc-
tionist behavior by CIA officers.
The death toll from the worst
recorded Ebola outbreak in his-
tory surpassed 700 in West Afri-
ca.
ºLast year, jury selection
began in the trial of Paul
Manafort, President Trump’s
former campaign chairman; he
was accused of failing to report
tens of millions of dollars in
Ukrainian political consulting
fees. (Manafort was sentenced
to a total of seven and a half
years in prison after being con-
victed at trial in Virginia and
pleading guilty in Washington
to two conspiracy counts.)This day in history
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Astronaut James Irwin walked to the lunar rover near
Mount Hadley. The rover was launched on July 31, 1971.617-606-
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