Headlines from Harvard’s history

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Illustration by Mark Steele

1924

In a likely first for Harvard, mother and son Martha Brown Fincke, M.Ed. ’24, and C. Louis Fincke ’24 receive degrees at the same Commencement.

1939

Modern pedagogy is well rep resented in the Summer School: J.R. Brewster ’25, of the Harvard Film Service, offers for the first time a course in the development of visual education, with special emphasis on audiovisual aids.

1944

After two years on campus training 6,500 “sky pilots” of all faiths for active service with U.S. troops, the Army Chaplain School departs for Fort Devens.

1949

Decanal records reveal that the 50-member football team set a scholastic record during the previous spring semester: placing almost half its men on the Dean’s List. Most of the rest showed up in the C category. A total of 205 courses revealed only one E and nine Ds.

1954

A 16-year-old camp counselor asks President Pusey’s office for help in winning his camp’s College Competition. Rival cabins had received stickers and photographs from Duke and Notre Dame, and stickers and a yearbook from Georgia Tech. Harvard’s stickers, pennants, a copy of The Harvard Book, “miscellaneous Harvard novels and stories,” copies of the Bulletin and the Crimson, and photographs help Cabin H win first prize.

1974

More than 2,000 people, many of them students, gather in Harvard Square on the evening of August 8 to mark Richard Nixon’s announcement that he will resign the next day.

2004

Following the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies Diana Eck and University chaplain Dorothy Austin, the heads of Lowell House, take their vows in Memorial Church on July 4.

2009

As the result of “an unfortunate set of circumstances” (as described in an official statement), Fletcher University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. is arrested at his home by a Cambridge police officer; ensuing controversies eventually lead to a “beer summit” at the White House.

Related topics

You might also like

Derek Bok donated his car for a good cause.

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

A theatrical reenactment explores a 1976 clash between science and democracy.

Most popular

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Court finds the government’s arguments that the University continues to violate civil rights laws unpersuasive.

Explore More From Current Issue

A flooded office scene with computers, a woman working, and a pink sunset backdrop.

A College student’s attempt to recapture the romanticism of the workplace.

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

A vibrant illustration of a red car parked, surrounded by cheerful people and historic buildings.

Derek Bok donated his car for a good cause.