Headlines from Harvard history, November-December 1913-1988

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

1913 

Capping a 9-0 football season—with Harvard scoring a total 215 points to their opponents’ 21—the Crimson achieves its first victory (15-5) over the Elis in the 10-year-old Harvard Stadium.

1943 

A Bulletin editorial laments that “Too many boys…are coming to Harvard and other American colleges…woefully unprepared in speaking and writing ” English, and praises English A’s remedial courses for their important wartime role.

1958 

Plans are complete for an extension of Leverett House, which has given Mather Hall [renamed Old Quincy, and now Stone Hall] to Quincy House. For the first time, the University will build high: two 12-story glass-and-limestone towers will house 280 students.

After a letter in the Crimson reports that some landlords registered with the Harvard Housing Office refuse to rent to blacks, the office draws up a pledge of nondiscrimination that all landlords using its services must sign.

Three faculty members spend three weeks in Russia trying unsuccessfully to visit the Soviet space program’s computing center. Astronomer Fred Whipple remarks that the Russian rocketry program is definitely military, and being pushed at an enormous pace. Allen Hynek, associate director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, comments: “The United States may be losing the race for scientific supremacy because Americans are more interested in prosperity than posterity.”

1973 

The Yale Band, playing at halftime during Yale’s game against Cornell, forms an H on the field to honor the victims of President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday night massacre”—Archibald Cox ’34, LL.B. ’37; Elliot Richardson ’41, LL.B. ’44, and William Ruckelshaus, LL.B. ’60.

1988 

The University’s Association of Black Faculty and Administrators calls for an affirmative-action plan to ensure that black, Hispanic, and Native Americans comprise 10 percent of Harvard faculties by 1990, the centennial of the College graduation year of W.E.B. Du Bois, who later became Harvard’s first black Ph.D. recipient.

Related topics

You might also like

Highlights from Harvard’s Past

The rise of Cambridge cyclists, a lettuce boycott, and Julia Child’s cookbooks

Wadsworth House Nears 300

The building is a microcosm of Harvard’s history—and the history of the United States.

In Sermon, Garber Urges Harvard Community to ‘Defend and Protect’ Institutions

Harvard’s president uses traditional Memorial Church address to encourage divergent views.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Excerpt from “Exercised,” by Daniel E. Lieberman

A biological anthropologist explains why and how exercise works to combat senescence.

Harvard’s Class of 2029 Reflects Shifts in Racial Makeup After Affirmative Action Ends

International students continue to enroll amid political uncertainty; mandatory SATs lead to a drop in applications.

Explore More From Current Issue

Aisha Muharrar with shoulder-length hair, wearing a green blazer and white shirt.

Parks and Rec Comedy Writer Aisha Muharrar Gets Serious about Grief

With Loved One, the Harvard grad and Lampoon veteran makes her debut as a novelist.

People gather near the John Harvard Statue in front of University Hall surrounded by autumn trees.

A Changed Harvard Faces the Future

After a tense summer—and with no Trump settlement in sight—the University continues to adapt.