1903
Students dining in Memorial Hall no longer need carry spare change in their pockets: the system of tipping the waiters has been abolished.
1933
In his second month in office, President James Bryant Conant discontinues the 7 o’clock rising bell in Harvard Yard, ending a tradition that has long outraged sleepy freshmen.
1938
A hurricane rips through New England on September 21, uprooting trees, smashing windows, toppling steeples, and disabling electric lights and telephone service on campus and elsewhere. The disaster claims more than 600 lives in all and leaves the Yard looking “as though it had gone through an airplane bombardment.”
1943
On September 6, in a ceremony whose guest of honor had been kept secret until the day before, the University bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws upon British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The event brought many professors home from vacations and led many families to cancel their Labor Day plans.
1948
Tuition at the College has risen to $525 per annum, a jump of more than 30 percent. The increase continues a trend among Ivy League institutions and marks the first fee change in nearly 20 years.
1963
The 1962-63 Treasurer’s Report indicates that Harvard’s expenses, for the first time, approximate a hundred million dollars.
A scoreless tie of a football season-opener against the University of Massachusetts seemed foreordained: the pregame coin-toss left the coin standing on edge and required a second flip, the editors report.
