Headlines from Harvard’s history

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Illustration showing groups on both sides of the Charles River pushing two halves of a brick bridge together to span the river

Illustration by Mark Steele

1915

The University’s new professor of hygiene institutes precautionary measures in the weekly inspection of milk, butter, and cream supplies in various Harvard dining halls to forestall the “epidemics and ‘flashes’ of typhoid which have wrought havoc in other colleges….”

1925

The Massachusetts legislature passes an act to permit construction of a footbridge over the Charles River from the Cambridge side to the site of the Business School’s proposed buildings.

1935

President Conant’s proposal to eliminate Latin as an entrance requirement for A.B. candidates creates a furor.…The Faculty Council decides that knowledge of either Latin or Greek will remain a requirement for the A.B. degree.

1960

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences approves Social Studies as the second interdepartmental honors concentration for undergraduates, almost 60 years after History and Literature became the first.

1965

Chanting “Raise Cops’ Pay,” a shifting group of about 200 undergraduates stage a spring “riot” on Sunday, May 9, between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., heading to Radcliffe twice and to Lesley College once for panty raids, largely unmolested by either Cambridge or Harvard police. The outbreak apparently forestalls a planned sit-in at Lamont by a Radcliffe group, WILL (Women to Invade Lamont Library).

Harvard asks the Cambridge City Council for permission to spend $2 million to depress Cambridge Street and build a pedestrian mall over it from Littauer Center and Phillips Brooks House to the fire station.

1985

A small protest fails to keep South Africa’s consul general from a Harvard Conservative Club luncheon at Lowell House, and the crowd grows to nearly 200; some block a Harvard police car, others scuffle with a police escort. (The consul leaves via steam tunnel.) The incident prompts the reconvening of the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (set up in 1969) for the first time in seven years.

2000

A University committee recommends extending job training and health-insurance benefits to almost all University employees, including casual workers and those employed through subcontractors. Hundreds of students, meanwhile, turn out to hear Matt Damon ’92 endorse the living-wage campaign being sponsored by the Progressive Student Labor Movement.

You might also like

Highlights from Harvard’s Past

The Medical School goes coed, University poet wins Nobel Prize. 

Free Speech, the Bomb—and Donald Trump

A Harvard cardiologist on the unlikely alliances that shaped a global movement to prevent nuclear war

Snapshots of Harvard History | Summer 2025

Including profundity and pretzels

Most popular

How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard

Trump, TikTok, and the pandemic are reshaping Gen Z politics.

Harvard Panel Debunks the Population Implosion Myth

Public health professors parse the evidence surrounding falling U.S. birth rates.

Why Heat Waves Make You Miserable

Scientists are studying how much heat and humidity the human body can take.

Explore More From Current Issue

Illustrated world map showing people connected across countries with icons for ideas, research, and communication.

Why Harvard Needs International Students

An ed school professor on why global challenges demand global experiences

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.