Yesterday’s News

Headlines from Harvard’s history

Illustration of Harvard fencer competing in Paris Olympics 1924

Illustration by Mark Steele

1919 

Indignant alumni write the Bulletin protesting the unsportsmanlike conduct of Harvard spectators at the annual Harvard-Yale baseball game, including an “organized attempt to rattle the Yale pitcher by means of howling voices and beating drums.” Yale won, 10-8.

1924

Burke Boyce ’22, an instructor in English and former captain of the fencing team, is a member of the U.S. squad at the Paris Olympics, but does not medal.

1944 

President James Bryant Conant offers Harvard’s Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington, D.C., for a conference of delegates from Britain, Russia, and the United States to plan for the preservation of peace in the postwar world.

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 B+.

1979 

Despite a June ruling by the Supreme Court that colleges can require “reasonable physical qualifications” of their applicants, Harvard will abide by its plan to make all buildings accessible to disabled persons by 1980 by installing ramps and elevators.

2004 

Following the legalization of same-sex 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 by a Cambridge police officer; ensuing controversies eventually lead to a “beer summit” at the White House.

You might also like

Tips of the Hat(s)

On regalia, a Jack-of-all-trades retirement, and a Bok’s office bon mot.

Yesterday’s News

Including profundity and pretzels

An Original Magna Carta, Hidden in Plain Sight

A rare original surfaces at Harvard at an “almost providential” moment. 

Most popular

“Do You Find That Reasonable?” Harvard Undergraduates Discuss a Changing University

A student panel grapples—civilly—with shifting policies and differing opinions.

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Harvard Adopts Reforms as Higher Ed Turmoil Continues

University creates new “interfaith engagement” role; Columbia, Brown settle with the government.

Explore More From Current Issue

Black-and-white photo of a person wearing a “STRIKE” shirt facing a large crowd in a stadium during a protest.

A retrospective on resistance

David Souter

Remembering David Souter ’61, LL.B. ’66

Illustration of Donald Trump and Alan Garber wearing boxing gloves, facing off beneath the quote: “The stakes are so high that we have no choice.”

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes.