November-December 2000 > The Alumni

Yesterday's News

Yesterday's News

From the pages of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and Harvard Magazine



1915 During halftime at The  Game, spectators donate $11,537.30 for war relief in Europe—a  “record high” compared with similar collections made at Yale and  Princeton, but an average contribution of only 23 cents per person. 

  

1920 As part of “Faculty Week”  in Appleton Chapel, a different professor leads the service each  morning. The Bulletin’s editors feel this “emphasizes the  close relation of the Chapel services to the academic work of  the College….” 

  

1930 In the first official  interhouse athletic competition, Dunster House beats Lowell House  at football (7-6).


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An advertisement in the Bulletin by the Harvard Alumni  Placement Service states, “Unemployment, widespread and serious,  is causing many Harvard men to look for jobs for the first time  in their lives.” Fellow alumni are asked to forward information  about job openings to the placement service. 

  

1935 Cambridge police seize  copies of the Advocate, alleging that two articles in the  issue are indecent. After a meeting with the district attorney,  the magazine’s officers agree to resign. 

  

1945 The University’s Geological  Museum has acquired a 3,000-pound block of coal—the size of a  pinball machine—thanks to Col. Robert P. Koenig ’24. Assigned  to repair damaged pit machinery in the mining district of Moselle,  in Lorraine, his efforts prompted grateful French officials to  present him with the first lump of coal extracted from the rejuvenated  mines, a gift he has in turn donated to Harvard. 

  

1950 Writing as a private  citizen in Look magazine, President James B. Conant recommends  a program of mandatory, two-year conscription at the age of 18,  with “no deferments of college students or anyone else,” as a  way of guarding against the threat of Russian-initiated global  war. 

  

1965 Two Harvard professors  from different disciplines, physicist Julian Schwinger and chemist  Robert Woodward, win Nobel Prizes—a first for the University. 

  

1970 The University Committee  on Governance recommends that the term of the next president of  Harvard should not exceed a period ranging between 10 and 14 years,  and also suggests that the new president may prefer instead a  five- to seven-year term with the possibility of renewal. 

  

1975 To save fuel during the  three-week winter break, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will  close almost all College facilities, including libraries, offices,  and most of the housing system. Thermostats will be turned to  40 degrees. 

  

1985 Among the treats announced  for the upcoming celebration of the University’s 350th anniversary  is a speech by HRH the Prince of Wales.