Five Things: Celebrate a Team's Run and a Life Cut Too Short; First Day of Spring

Good morning, Hampton and North Hampton. Here are five things you need to know for Wednesday, March 20:

1. In Case You Missed It: The recounts are coming, the recounts are coming — as it the demolition of the old Hampton District Court building.

2. Today’s Featured Fun: The banquet for the Winnacunnet High School girls' basketball team, which fell one game short of the state title game this year, is at 6 p.m. at the Galley Hatch Conference Center.

 3. What Else Is Happening Today? A young woman killed in a car accident over the weekend will be buried today.

It's also the first day of spring, although you can't really tell by looking outside thanks to Tuesday's snowstorm.

4. This Day in History: On this day in 1854, in Ripon, Wisc., former members of the Whig Party met to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the "tyranny" of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery.

With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, the Whigs disintegrated. By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

5. Today's Forecast:

Day
Snow before noon, then rain and snow. High near 35. East wind around 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Night
Rain and snow, becoming all snow after 10pm. Low around 27. Northeast wind 11 to 15 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.