Headlines from Harvard’s history

When the Law School made thin ice…and other headlines from Harvard’s history

Illustration by Mark Steele

1934

The College funds five $1,000 fellowships for prospective freshmen who live and attend school in the Midwest: an experiment by President James B. Conant to attract “the most promising young men throughout the whole nation.”

1939

“The Undergraduate Week,” by William R. Frye ’40, reports: “If Harvard ever was composed solely of the ‘upper crust’ of society, it is not so composed now”: the Student Employment Office, organized to provide jobs for men facing financial difficulties, is serving nearly one-third of the undergraduate body.

1964

Harvard opens a housing office; its first task is assigning apartments in one section of Peabody Terrace that has been finished nine months ahead of schedule.

1969

A faculty committee chaired by professor of economics Henry Rosovsky proposes a degree program and research center for Afro-American studies.

1984

The Law School faculty approves a pilot program to provide about $125,000 in loans to supplement the earnings of first- and second-year law students who take low-paying, law-related jobs in the public-service or public-interest sector during the summer.

2004

Dean of the Law School Elena Kagan decides on the spur of a frozen January moment to flood the field by Harkness Commons to form a skating rink that will remain open, she says, “until it melts.” 

2009

Harvard men’s basketball records its first win over a nationally ranked opponent, Boston College (which had beaten the nation’s top team only a week before), as shooting guard Jeremy Lin ’10 scores 27 points and makes eight assists and six steals.

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

The University will compensate families of those whose remains were sold and establish a scholarship to honor anatomical donors.

The division is launching a new fundraising effort to support 50 additional students.

A new book explores the Harvard-trained architect’s vision and impact, from Ground Zero to the Smithsonian.

Explore More From Current Issue

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 glowing bulb shape surrounded by colorful, swirling energy lines against a blue background.

Harvard researchers achieve medical breakthroughs in cancer therapy and infection control.

A smiling elderly man in glasses sits comfortably in a striped armchair.

Plus, veteran higher education leader Thomas Ehrlich reflects on university curricula for his 70th reunion