Northwestern University Sesquicentennial: Historical Timeline

This site was created for Northwestern's Sesquicentennial celebration which concluded in 2001. The information is retained for archival purposes only and is not updated. For information about the celebration, contact archives@northwestern.edu or univ-relations@northwestern.edu.

[ 1850-1899 ] [ 1900-1949 ] [ 1950-2001 ]

EVENTS IN LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND WORLD HISTORY		EVENTS IN NORTHWESTERN HISTORY
Max Planck develops theory of quantum physics. Boxer rebellion in China.	1900	Student dismissed for marrying while still an undergraduate. Women's grass hockey team organized. Northwestern has third highest student enrollment in the nation.
Commonwealth of Australia formed.	1901	Men's basketball introduced at Northwestern.
	1902	The Rock, originally a drinking fountain, given as a gift of the class of 1902.
Pierre and Marie Curie win Nobel prize for physics. Wright Brothers make first airplane flight.	1903	President Theodore Roosevelt visits campus. Northwestern wins the first of seven Big Ten football championships.
	1905	Football banned for five years due to violence.
	1907	Football ban rescinded.
Henry Ford produces first Model T car. Jacques Cousteau born. Chicago Cubs win World Series.	1908	Illinois Supreme Court decision removes tax threat to University property. Original Patten Gym built where Tech now stands. School of Commerce opens.
NAACP founded.	1909	Swift Hall of Engineering erected. College of Engineering opens.
Chinese rebellion against Manchus; republic is established.	1911	Homecoming inaugurated as a regular fall event. Green caps are compulsory for freshmen.
Robert Scottās expedition reaches the South Pole. Ravinia Park opens with opera performances.	1912	Kenneth Huszagh is first Northwestern athlete to participate in the Olympics. "Go, U Northwestern," written by Northwestern University Marching Band member Theodore Van Etten, premieres in season's final football game.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated. World War I starts. U.S. Federal Reserve system established.	1914	North Quads completed with seven fraternities and four residence halls. First university student council formed.
	1915	Harris Hall completed. Political science department organized.
Einstein publishes general theory of relativity. Introduction of graduated income tax in the United States.	1916	Northwestern Nights held by alumni clubs around the country. First candle lighting ceremony to commemorate the January 28 anniversary of the establishment of the Northwestern University charter.
Russian Revolution begins. Balfour Declaration promises homeland for Jews in Palestine.	1917	Northwestern Medical Corps formed. Northwestern men and women serve in various capacities in WWI: 250 students sign up for active service; 800 women mobilized in National Aid and Red Cross work; a total of 3,606 went to war, and 65 died. Pharmacy school transferred to the University of Illinois. Fisk Hall given over to the College of Arts and Sciences (later Weinberg College).
19th Amendment to the Constitution gives women get the right to vote. Volstead Act becomes law and Prohibition begins.	1920	Purchase of site for Chicago campus authorized. $25.3 million fundraising campaign launched, with $1.5 million designated for Chicago campus. Walter Dill Scott becomes first non-Methodist University president.
	1921	Medill School of Journalism established. General alumni association created out of groups from the individual schools. Cumnock School of Oratory becomes the School of Speech.
Egypt becomes independent from Britain under King Fuad.	1922	Northwestern University Press established.
	1923	Mrs. Montgomery Ward makes donation of more than $8 million to build the Montgomery Ward Memorial Building as the University's medical and dental center in downtown Chicago. It is the first academic building in the United States to be a skyscraper.
Nellie Ross of Wyoming becomes first woman governor in the United States.	1924	Wildcats replace Fighting Methodists as the school's team name.
	1925	School of Commerce and economics department expand with the addition of the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities.
	1926	Dyche Stadium completed with capacity of 47,000 seats. School of Education established. Women's Quads dedicated with 2 residential halls and 14 sororities. Navy ROTC established on campus. Theater department organized in the School of Speech. School of Commerce moves into Wieboldt Hall in Chicago.
Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Mickey Mouse created by Walt Disney.	1928	Evening division for adult education opens on Chicago campus. Western Episcopal Seminary buildings erected.
U.S. stock market crashes; Great Depression follows. In St. Valentineās Day Massacre, Al Caponeās men kill members of bootlegger Bugs Moranās gang.	1929	First Waa-Mu Show. Northwestern Associates formed by 57 leading Chicagoans to foster University interests among leading citizens.
	1931	Locy annex to Fisk Hall built. National High School Institute founded.
	1932	Deering Library opens. Merger of Northwestern and the University of Chicago proposed - and dismissed.
Hitler comes to power. Frances Perkins becomes Secretary of Labor, first woman in a U.S. cabinet position. Prohibition repealed.	1933	Western Episcopal Seminary merges with Seabury Seminary. Creation of University College. Development office established. Professor Vladimir Ipatieff develops the modern theory of chemical catalysis, the basis of the modern U.S. petrochemical industry.
	1937	Saul Bellow graduates from Northwestern.
	1939	Franklyn Snyder becomes University president. The first-ever NCAA Men's Basketball Championship held at Northwestern in Patten Gymnasium.
	1940	First Selective Service registration undertaken; 1,500 students register. Student Interracial Commission formed as a reaction to housing problems on campus because of the administration's belief that it was unfeasible to house black and white students together. Scott Hall in Evanston and Abbott Hall in Chicago open.
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. U.S. enters World War II.	1941	Lutkin Hall opens. Benny Goodman plays at the Junior Prom. Wildcats win the first NCAA Men's Fencing Championship.
First controlled atomic reaction conducted by Enrico Fermi and colleagues below Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.	1942	Technological Institute completed.
	1943	John Evans Alumni Center opens. Army Civil Affairs Training School inaugurated at Northwestern. The Chicago School of Domestic Arts and Sciences turns over its assets to Northwestern to endow a curriculum in the field of home administration.
	1944	Future Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham graduates.
	1945	Northwestern loses more than 300 in the war.
	1946	Quonset huts constructed to house Northwestern students returning from WWII.
India gains independence from Britain.	1947	Charlotte Rae appears in Waa-Mu Show.
	1948	Northwestern defeats California 20-14 in the Rose Bowl. WNUR begins broadcasting. Click here to go to the WNUR memories web site. Program of African Studies established by Professor Melville Herskovits.
Communists take power in China. Dead Sea Scrolls discovered.	1949	J. Roscoe Miller named University president. First computer installed on campus in an unused room of the Dearborn Observatory

[ 1850-1899 ] [ 1950-2001 ]