Headlines from Harvard history

Headlines from Harvard history

 1911

The College Library expects to be without money to buy new books for the next several months. 

 

 1926 

Construction under way includes Straus Hall, the Fogg Art Museum, McKinlock Hall (a freshman residence fronting the Charles), and the Business School complex, a gift of George F. Baker.

***

The first movie theater in Cambridge is about to open across from the Yard.

 

 1931

The masters of Adams, Kirkland, Leverett, Eliot, and Winthrop, the five new Houses, have joined the masters of Dunster and Lowell in apportioning a cross-section of current sophomores and juniors to each House for the coming year. The Bulletin reports that the proportion of public-school graduates is approximately the same in all the Houses, as is the distribution of students from different sections of the country. 

***

The Corporation declines a Boston lawyer’s bequest of $25,000 for a lectureship designed to prove that the “modern feminist movement…[impairs] the family as a basis of civilization and its advance….” 

 

 1936 

Harvard has established a laboratory at Glen Cove, Long Island, to study the origin, spread, and eradication of various plant diseases, especially Dutch elm disease. 

 

 1951 

A survey of Bulletin readers finds that only one in four subscribers owns a television set. 

***

 

President Conant urges passage of the Universal Military Service and Training Bill, partly because “the U.S. monopoly of the bomb has ended [and] Soviet allies have shown a readiness to gain their ends by force.”

 

 1961

President-elect John F. Kennedy ’40, LL.D. ’56, is mobbed by enthusiastic Harvard students as he arrives to attend a meeting of the Board of Overseers. 

 

 1966 

The Cambridge City Council approves Harvard’s request to construct, at its own expense, a six-lane underpass at the western end of Cambridge Street, north of the Yard. 

***

Linda McVeigh ’67 becomes the first female managing editor of the Crimson. 

 

 1986 

Backed by Alumni Against Apartheid, John Plotz ’69, Gay Seidman ’78 (the first woman president of the Crimson), and Kenneth Simmons ’54 collect enough signatures to run as petition candidates for the Board of Overseers, seeking to press Harvard to divest its holdings in companies doing business in South Africa. 

Related topics

You might also like

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.

At Harvard’s Beck-Warren House, Ghosts Speak Many Languages

The quirky 1833 home now hosts Celtic scholars.

A Forgotten Harvard Anthem

Published the year the Titanic sank, “Harvard’s Best” is a quizzical ode to the University.

Most popular

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files

The 1884 Cannibalism-at-Sea Case That Still Has Harvard Talking

The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens changed the course of legal history. Here’s why it’s been fodder for countless classroom debates.

Are “Little Red Dots” Keys to Understanding the Early Universe?

Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Fabio Pacucci explains one of cosmology’s newest mysteries

Explore More From Current Issue

A black primate hanging lazily on a branch in a lush green forest.

What Bonobos Teach Us About Female Power and Cooperation

A Harvard scientist expands our understanding of our closest living relatives.

A diverse group of individuals standing on stage, wearing matching shirts and smiling.

How a Harvard and Lesley Group Broke Choir Singing Wide Open

Cambridge Common Voices draws on principles of universal design. 

A person climbs a curved ladder against a colorful background and four vertical ladders.

Harvard’s Productivity Trap

What happened to doing things for the sake of enjoyment?