Yesterday's News

1923 Responding to a New York Times assertion that "information from Harvard, Princeton and Yale" indicates that the Volstead Act...

1923 Responding to a New York Times assertion that "information from Harvard, Princeton and Yale" indicates that the Volstead Act seems to have driven many students from the "comparative moderation of the last decade," the Bulletin's editors report that "the testimony of the College officers and of the police and our own observation convince us that both drinking and drunkenness have fallen off in Cambridge."

 

1928 Harvard has received an anonymous gift of $3 million to build and endow an upperclass House, dining halls and common rooms. The gift and possibility of new dorms have prompted debate over whether it would benefit the College and students to split them into smaller living groups.

 

1943 The University reports its civilian enrollment is only 1,925 out of a total of 8,000 undergraduates and graduates. About 2,200 students are enrolled in army programs and about 3,600 in naval programs.

 

1948 Groundskeepers discover a nefarious Game plot: several MIT students have wired the field to blast that school's initials into the grass. "Local police were called in, a trap was set, and, shortly before game time, an MIT junior and his lady friend were apprehended near the detonating point." Eight students were suspended and one placed on probation.

 

1953 Senator Joseph McCarthy calls Harvard "a smelly mess" for continuing to employ a former member of the Communist Party. The Corporation states that it would not best serve the University to dismiss the junior faculty member "at this time."

 

1958 Plans have been completed for an extension of Leverett House. For the first time, the University decides to build high: two 12-story glass-and-limestone towers to house 280 students.

 

1963 Segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace delivers a speech to a packed Sanders Theatre that the editors describe as "alternately humble, cajoling, homey, obscure, quick, and disarming."

 

1968 Fury erupts at a December 3 faculty meeting when philosophy professor Hilary Putnam introduces an anti-ROTC resolutiom. The huge attendance forces the meeting to be held in Sanders Theatre; outside, 250 students hand out leaflets and shout, "ROTC must go."

 

1983 On November 19, the hundredth Harvard-Yale football game is played in the Yale Bowl, a mile from the old park where the first game took place in 1875. Harvard wins, 16-7, to tie Pennsylvania for the Ivy League title.

 

     

Most popular

Lafayette’s Unexpected Gift to George Washington: Pheasants

The two birds will be on display at Harvard this summer.

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.

President Alan M. Garber used traditional Memorial Church address to consider the unique qualities of human intelligence and learning.

Explore More From Current Issue

A woman with curly blonde hair sits casually against a stone wall, wearing a black top and jeans.

Chloe Chapin trains her Broadway costume designer’s eye on the history of men’s fashion.

A woman with long, wavy hair wearing a white suit, seated in a bright, modern room.

The Harvard graduate’s roundtable talk show touches on hot button issues from religion to sex. 

A football player in a white jersey evades a defender in a green uniform on the field.

Despite personnel losses, Crimson captain Xaviah Bascon is upbeat about the 2026 season.