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1636: Harvard College established. |
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Henry Dunster (1609-1659)
Term of office: 1640-1654
Education: Magdalene College, Cambridge University, England (B.A. 1631; M.A. 1634).
Professional background: Clergyman, educator.
Immediate past position: Schoolmaster and church curate in Bury, England.
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1650: President and Fellows of Harvard College established. |
1643: The colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven form The United Colonies of New England.
1648: Europe's Thirty Years' War ends. |
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Charles Chauncy (1592-1672)
Term of office: 1654-1672 (died in office in February).
Education: Trinity College, Cambridge University (B.A. 1614; M.A. 1617; B.D.
[Bachelor of Divinity] 1624).
Professional background: Greek lecturer at Trinity; vicar to several English churches.
Immediate past position: Minister in Scituate, Mass.
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1665: Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk becomes the first Native American to receive a Harvard degree. |
1665: Newton conceives the theory of universal gravitation and develops early forms of calculus. |
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Leonard Hoar (ca. 1630-1675)
Term of office: 1672-1675.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1650; A.M. 1653); Cambridge University, England
(M.D. 1671).
Professional background: Ecclesiastical posts in England, biblical scholarship.
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1674: Harvard College publishes what is believed to be the first yearbook of college graduates. |
1674: Using a microscope, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek gives the first accurate description of red blood cells. |
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Urian Oakes (ca. 1631-1681)
Terms of office: Acting President, 1675-1680; President, 1680-1681 (died in
office on Aug. 4)
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1649; A.M. 1652).
Professional background: Ecclesiastical posts in England, grammar-school
headmaster, orator.
Immediate past position: Minister in Cambridge, Mass.
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John Rogers (1630-1684)
Term of office: 1682-1684 (died in office on July 12)
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1649; A.M. 1652).
Professional background: Assisted (without ordination) his brother-in-law William
Hubbards ministry and practiced medicine (without medical training) on parishioners
in Ipswich, Mass.
Immediate past position: Presumably as above.
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Increase Mather (1639-1723)
Terms of office: Acting President, 1685-1686; Rector (a unique title), 1686-1692;
President, 1692-1701.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1656); Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (A.M. 1658).
Professional background: Pastor of North (Second) Church, Boston, Mass.
Immediate past position: As above (Mather continued his Boston pastorate during his 16-year Harvard executive term).
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1690: Spain establishes its first mission in Texas.
1693: The College of William and Mary is founded.
1701: Yale College is founded. |
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John Leverett (1662-1724)
Term of office: 1708-1724 (died in office on May 14)
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1680; A.M. 1683).
Professional background: Lawyer, judge, legislator, provincial envoy.
Immediate past position: Provincial Councilor, Eastern Maine.
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1720: Massachusetts Hall built.
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1720: Spain begins occupying Texas. |
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Benjamin Wadsworth (1670-1737)
Term of office: 1725-1737 (died in office on March 27).
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1690; A.M. 1693).
Professional background: Clergyman. |
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1728: James Bradley detects stellar aberration, the apparent motion of stars caused by Earth's rotation. This observation provides the first solid confirmation of the Copernican heliocentric theory. |
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Edward Holyoke (1689-1769)
Term of office: 1737-1769 (died in office on June 1, not long before his 80th birthday, making him the oldest to serve as Harvard President).
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1705; A.M. 1708).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past position: Pastor to a church in Marblehead, Mass.
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1761: John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, arranges the first American astronomical expedition to observe Venus's transit over the Sun. |
1751: China invades Tibet (an action repeated 199 years later). |
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Samuel Locke (1732-1778)
Term of office: 1770-1773.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1755; A.M. 1758).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past position: Pastor in Sherborn, Mass.
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1770: Eleven colonists are shot by British troops in the Boston Massacre. |
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Samuel Langdon (1723-1797)
Term of office: 1774-1780
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1740; A.M. 1743).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past position: Pastor in Portsmouth, N.H.
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1776: The U.S. Declaration of Independence is signed. |
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Joseph Willard (1738-1804)
Term of office: 1781-1804 (died in office on Sept. 25).
Education: Harvard College (A.B., 1765; A.M. 1768).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past positions: Pastor of the First Parish, Beverly, Mass.; first corresponding secretary (1780) of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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1800: Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard Medical School, gives the first smallpox vaccinations in the U.S. |
1791: The U.S. Bill of Rights takes effect.
1804: Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of France. |
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Samuel Webber (1759-1810)
Term of office: 1806-1810 (died in office on July 17).
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1784; A.M. 1787).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past position: Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (Harvard).
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1808: The U.S. bans further importation of African slaves, but illegal traffic continues. |
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John Thornton Kirkland (1770-1840)
Term of office: 1810-1828.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1789; A.M. 1792).
Professional background: Clergyman.
Immediate past position: (Probably) Pastor of New South Church, Boston, Mass.
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1817: Harvard establishes the first university law school. |
1814: British troops burn the U.S. Capitol and the White House during the War of 1812, which ends this year with the Treaty of Ghent. |
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Josiah Quincy (1772-1864)
Term of office: 1829-1845.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1790; A.M. 1793).
Professional background: Lawyer (with service in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate).
Immediate past position: Mayor of Boston.
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1831: Nat Turner leads a Virginia slave revolt.
1836: The Battle of the Alamo. Texas declares independence from Mexico. |
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Edward Everett (1794-1865)
Term of office: 1846-1849.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1811; A.M. 1814); University of Göttingen, Germany (Ph.D. 1817)
Professional background: Clergyman, orator, government official (with service in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Massachusetts governorship).
Immediate past position: U.S. Minister to Great Britain.
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1846: World's first demonstration of ether as a surgical anesthetic at Massachussetts General Hospital. |
1847: The U.S. issues its first postage stamp. |
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Jared Sparks (1789-1866)
Term of office: 1849-1853.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1815; A.M. 1818), Harvard Divinity School (studies, 1818; HDS did not grant degrees at this time).
Professional background: Clergyman, historian.
Immediate past position: McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History (est. and first held [by Sparks] in 1838, Harvard).
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1852: Harvard and Yale rowing clubs meet for the nation's first intercollegiate rowing contest. Harvard wins. |
1850: A telegraph cable across the English Channel connects England to continental Europe. |
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James Walker (1794-1874)
Term of office: 1853-1860.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1814; A.M. 1817), Harvard Divinity School (studies, 1817; HDS did not grant degrees at this time).
Professional background: Harvard professor.
Immediate past position: Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity (Harvard).
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1855: Florence Nightingale pioneers in providing nursing care on the battlefield. |
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Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862)
Term of office: 1860-1862 (died in office on Feb. 26).
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1827; A.M. 1830).
Professional background: Educator (with service on the Massachusetts Board of Education,
as Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as president of a Boston physical-education society).
Immediate past position: Eliot Professor of Greek Literature (Harvard).
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1861: The U.S. Civil War begins. |
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Thomas Hill (1818-1891)
Term of office: 1862-1868.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1843; A.M. 1846), Harvard Divinity School (completed studies, 1845; HDS did not grant degrees at this time).
Professional background: Clergyman, mathematician, educator.
Immediate past position: President of Antioch College, Ohio.
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1867: Harvard establishes the nation's first university school of dentistry. |
1863: Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. |
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Charles William Eliot (1834-1926)
Term of office: 1869-1909 (longest presidency in Harvard history).
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1853; A.M. 1856).
Professional background: Chemist.
Immediate past position: Professor of Analytical Chemistry (M.I.T.).
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1875: The first Harvard-Yale football game takes place in New Haven, Connecticut. Harvard wins.
1886: Reginald Heber Fitz, the Shattuck Professor of Pathological Anatomy, becomes the first to recognize and name the disease of appendicitis.
1903: Harvard Stadium, the first stadium built for U.S. college athletics, is completed.
1908: Harvard Business School opens. |
1869: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organize the National Woman Suffrage Association.
1876: Sitting Bull defeats General Custer at the Little Bighorn.
1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1896: The first modern Olympic games take place in Athens, Greece.
1903: The Wright Brothers fly the first airplane.
1905: Albert Einstein presents the special theory of relativity. |
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A(bbott) Lawrence Lowell (1856-1943)
Term of office: 1909-1933.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1877), Harvard Law School (LL.B. 1880).
Professional background: Harvard government professor.
Immediate past position: Eaton Professor of the Science of Government (Harvard).
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1915: The Harvard-Boston Expedition begins excavation of the temples of Amon-Ra and the two groups of pyramids in the adjacent desert. |
1914-18: World War I.
1917: The Russian Revolution.
1929: The stock market crashes, plunging the U.S. into the Great Depression.
1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
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James Bryant Conant (1893-1978)
Term of office: 1933-1953.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1913, as a member of the Class of 1914),
Harvard University (Ph.D. 1916).
Professional background: Chemist.
Immediate past position: Sheldon Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry (Harvard).
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1949: The first women graduate from the Medical School. |
1939-45: World War II.
1945: The U.S. drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
1945: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
1950-53: The Korean War.
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Nathan Marsh Pusey(1907-2001)
Term of office: 1953-1971.
Education: Harvard College (A.B. 1928), Harvard University (A.M. 1932; Ph.D. 1937).
Professional background: College president.
Immediate past position: President of Lawrence College, Appleton, Wis.
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1969: In the most controversial action of his administration, President Nathan Marsh Pusey calls in outside police to end a student takeover of University Hall. |
1954: Jonas Salk develops the first effective vaccine against polio.
1954-75: The Vietnam War.
1955: Spurred by Rosa Parks's refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man on a segregated bus, the U.S. civil-rights struggle begins.
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis.
1963: President Kennedy is assassinated.
1969: Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the Moon.
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Derek Bok (b. March 22, 1930)
Term of office: 1971-1991 and 2006-2007.
Education: Stanford University (A.B. 1951), Harvard Law School (J.D. 1954), George Washington University (A.M. 1958).
Professional background: Lawyer, Harvard law professor.
Immediate past position: Dean of Harvard Law School.
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1982: Mother Teresa of Calcutta delivers Class Day address to graduating seniors. |
1974: Watergate scandal. U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns.
1975: The U.S. pulls out of South Vietnam. Communist forces take over.
1978: At the Camp David Summit with President Carter, Egypt's Anwar al-Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin develop a plan for peace in the Middle East.
1989: Beijing's Tiananmen Square protest is halted in a deadly crackdown by the Chinese government.
1989: The Berlin Wall comes down.
1990: Nelson Mandela freed by South African government.
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Neil L. Rudenstine (b. Jan. 21, 1935)
Term of office: 1991-2001.
Education: Princeton University (B.A. 1956), Oxford University (B.A. 1959; M.A. 1963), Harvard University (Ph.D. 1964).
Professional background: English and American literary scholar.
Immediate past position: Executive Vice President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York.
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1999: Creation of the interdisciplinary Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study as an integral part of Harvard. |
1991: The U.S. and its allies launch Operation Desert Storm (the Persian Gulf War).
1991: Apartheid ends in South Africa.
1995: U.S. troops to Bosnia.
1995: The bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City claims nearly 170 lives.
1995: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.
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Lawrence H. Summers (b. Nov. 30, 1954)
Term of office: 2001-2006
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. 1975), Harvard University (Ph.D. 1982).
Professional background: Economics professor, served in a series of public-policy positions.
Immediate past position: Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.
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2001: Harvard pledges $1 million in scholarship funds to aid the family members of victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
2003: Harvard announces a $100 million pledge from Eli and Edythe Broad to found the Harvard/MIT Broad Institute.
2004: Harvard launches the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
2004: Harvard announces a new initiative aimed at overcoming economic barriers to college.
2004: Harvard partners with Google to digitize a substantial number of the Harvard Library's volumes.
2005: The Harvard Task Forces on women release reports.
2005: Professor Roy Glauber wins Nobel Prize in Physics.
2005: Professor Emeritus Thomas Schelling wins Nobel Prize in Economics.
2006: Harvard proposes that the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences become the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, thus establishing its first new School in 35 years.
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2001: Thousands are killed when terrorists attack U.S.
2003: Iraq War begins.
2003: SARS outbreak is contained.
2004: Red Sox win World Series for first time in 86 years.
2004: U.S. President George W. Bush wins reelection.
2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people.
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