July-August 2004 > John Harvard's Journal

Yesterday's News

Yesterday's News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

1919 Indignant alumni write the Bulletin protesting the unsportsmanlike conduct of Harvard spectators at the annual Harvard-Yale baseball game, including “an organized attempt to rattle the Yale pitcher by means of howling voices and beating drums.” Yale won, 10-8.

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An “Old Grads’ Summer School” draws more than a hundred alumni fundraisers to Cambridge for a three-day informational-motivational session before the kickoff of the Harvard Endowment Fund’s $15.25 million capital drive.

 

1934 The Harvard Club of Hawaii welcomes President Roosevelt ’04 and the Harvard baseball team to its annual picnic, where FDR graciously dons an official gown inscribed “Big Chief” and downs one of his host’s “famous Hawaiian pineapple cocktails.”

 

1954 Guest speakers at the Summer School’s International Seminar for European and Asian scholars and officials include James Reston, Gilbert Seldes, Norbert Wiener, Thurgood Marshall, and Al Capp.

 

1964 At least six members of the larger Harvard-Radcliffe contingent doing civil-rights work in Mississippi are arrested and jailed during the summer.

 

1969 After the student strike, a special committee of Overseers — appointed to study the long-range causes of the crisis and recommend appropriate action — writes more than 5,000 teaching members of the Harvard community seeking their views on Harvard’s future.

 

1979 Despite a June ruling by the Supreme Court that colleges can require “reasonable physical qualifications” of their applicants, Harvard will abide by its plan to make all buildings accessible to disabled persons by 1980 by installing ramps and elevators.

 

1984 Harvard Stadium enjoys an Olympic moment as a site of quarterfinal rounds in men’s soccer. At the opening ceremonies, skydivers form the Olympic rings high over the stadium; the diver who misses the playing field and lands on the roof of a nearby building is unhurt.