1914
When an alumnus threatens to cut a $10-million bequest out of his will unless outspokenly pro-German Professor Hugo Münsterberg is fired, the University replies that it “cannot tolerate any suggestion that it would…accept money to abridge free speech, to remove a professor, or to accept his resignation.”
1929
The editors warn darkly: “If undergraduates are less in their rooms today, and consequently less accessible to the knowledge of one another and of books; if they are more in the company of girls, more addicted to dancing and visiting, thanks are largely due to the automobile.”
1939
With backing from Phillips Brooks House, graduate student Jacob M. Hagopian [Ph.D. ’43] has rented 5 Divinity Avenue from the College and turned it into Harvard’s new “International House.” Residents include two Chinese, two Filipinos, several Americans of foreign descent, and four of the 20 European refugee students being supported by a $30,000 fund raised by students, alumni, and a Corporation gift.
1944
The Board of Overseers votes in favor of admitting women to the Medical School, effective with the class entering in the fall of 1945.
1964
A survey of just-graduated seniors reveals that 16 percent of those seeking full-time jobs have volunteered for the Peace Corps; only engineering, research, and technical jobs rank higher.
1969
A burglar tries to steal Widener Library’s two-volume Gutenberg Bible (worth roughly a million dollars), but falls from a rope into the library courtyard, breaking his leg and cracking his skull.
1999
In late October, presidents of seven universities in the People’s Republic of China visit to learn about American research universities. The magazine calls it “Harvard’s highest-level continuing-education course on higher education.”
2019
The Square’s remaking continues, as the buildings behind the triangular intersection of JFK and Brattle Streets are demolished to make way for a new retail mall.
