Headlines from Harvard history, July-August 1914-1994

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

1914

The outbreak of World War I traps more than 40 faculty members and close to 30 traveling fellows in Europe and sends at least two professors with French citizenship home to fight.

1939

President Conant prepares to move his office from University Hall, where Harvard’s presidents have worked since the building opened in 1815, to newly refurbished Massachusetts Hall.

1944

The summer heat has brought out the “whites” of the Navy V-12 students; skivvies, jumpers, and bell-bottom trousers hang out to dry under the willows of Eliot House.

1954

Hurricane Carol strikes with 120-mile-per-hour winds on August 31, toppling an oak and three of the oldest elms in the Yard, de-roofing the Newell Boathouse shed, and dropping a finial through the roof of Memorial Hall.

The two most popular summer-session courses are Professor Howard Mumford Jones’s “American Literature” and visiting author Frank O’Connor’s “The Nineteenth Century Novel.”

1959

Quincy House is rushed toward completion for September occupancy.

1969

Sixteen students have been required to leave Harvard because of their actions during the occupation of University Hall on April 9-10. Twenty others have been given a suspended requirement to withdraw while 102 more have been placed under warning.

1974

Newsweek reports that B is the average grade in American colleges. Harvard reports that the average grade for the College as a whole is a B+.

1994

Harvard Square landmark Out of Town News has been sold to an out-of-town owner, Hudson County News of New York.

Related topics

You might also like

Yesterday’s News

A co-ed experiment that changed dorm life forever

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.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Why Men Are Falling Behind in Education, Employment, and Health

Can new approaches to education address a growing gender gap?

Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s

Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

Explore More From Current Issue

Two bare-knuckle boxers fight in a ring, surrounded by onlookers in 19th-century attire.

England’s First Sports Megastar

A collection of illustrations capture a boxer’s triumphant moment. 

Four men in a small boat struggle with rough water, one lying down and others watching.

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.

Lawrence H. Summers, looking serious while speaking at a podium with a microphone.

Harvard in the News

Grade inflation, Epstein files fallout, University database breach