Headlines from Harvard history

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine

Illustration by Mark Steele

1906

The Newsboys Union of Boston raises $2,567.17 toward a scholarship fund that will send former newsboys to Harvard.

1931

President Conant decides that the football team shall play a postseason game, the receipts of which will go to unemployment relief.

1941

The Harvard Crimson drops its isolationist stand as the academic year begins. “That not only the Crimson but even the Leftist Student Union now find an isolationist position untenable is a sober comment on the state of mind of the undergraduates who returned to College this fall,” the Bulletin comments.

1946

Fletcher P. Martin, a city editor and war correspondent at the Louisville (Kentucky) Defender, becomes the first Nieman Fellow of color. He is one of 14 fellows chosen from a pool of more than 100 applicants, and is also the first representative of the Negro press.

1956

The Crimson discontinues its annual “Miss Radcliffe” beauty contest due to Radcliffe pressure, much to the dismay of Bulletin editors, who mourn: “For the undergraduate who had to contend with…the harsh fact that the myth of the Radcliffe Plain Jane has a broad base in reality, it was nice to be able to look to the symbol of an idealized Radcliffe populated with angels.”

1971

After a summer’s trial run, Harvard’s first day-care center moves from the basement of Memorial Hall to a permanent location in the former ROTC building near the Divinity School. The center has 24 children, and a waiting list of 19. Two Radcliffe day-care centers are already in operation.

* * *

Late-breaking news: A survey carried out during the twenty-fifth reunion of the class of ’46 revealed that 76.2 percent would object to a son’s becoming a hippie, and 48 percent opposed the women’s liberation movement, but 96.8 percent were in favor of birth-control devices.

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

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

Can new approaches to education address a growing gender gap?

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.

Adams House dedicates suite to Seamus Heaney

Adams House members, past and present, dedicate a suite to the Irish poet who lived among them.

Explore More From Current Issue

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 

Four young people sitting around a table playing a card game, with a chalkboard in the background.

On Weekends, These Harvard Math Professors Teach the Smaller Set

At Cambridge Math Circle, faculty and alumni share puzzles, riddles, and joy.

A man skiing intensely in the snow, with two spectators in the background.

Introductions: Dan Cnossen

A conversation with the former Navy SEAL and gold-medal-winning Paralympic skier