Harvard University

A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established a school on October 28, 1636 in Cambridge.

In 1638 John Harvard (November 26, 1607 – September 14, 1638), a clergyman and the teaching elder at Charlestown Church, Massachusetts died of tuberculosis. He bequeathed £780 (half of his monetary estate, with the remainder to his wife) together with his library of some 400 volumes to the recently founded and unnamed school in nearby Cambridge. The school named itself Harvard College on March 13, 1639 in his honor, the first ever college in what would become the United States. From 1780 onwards it was referred to as Harvard University.

Emmanuel College chapel By Dolly442 - Photographed by submitter

Early students at Harvard (they were all men) were forbidden to engage in the fashion extremes of hairstyling, including long hair, lovelocks, and hair powdering.

Until 1773, Harvard University graduates were ranked not by academic merit but according to their birth status or rank of their parents. This practice was known as "social seating". Social seating was based on the belief that people of higher social status were more deserving of respect and honor. It was also believed that social seating would help to maintain social order and hierarchy.

The first college orchestra was founded at Harvard University in 1808.

The freshman and sophomore classes at Harvard competed in a type of football game on the first Monday of each school year in the early 19th century. The day was called Bloody Monday because the game was so rough.

Harvard Law School was founded in 1817. It is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. Harvard Law School begun admitting women on October 9, 1949.

Photograph of front facade, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. By Daderoa

Sporting competition between universities dates back to August 3, 1852, when the Harvard-Yale rowing regatta first took place on Lake Winnepeasaukee, New Hampshire. It is the oldest of American intercollegiate sports. Harvard won this first boat race.

Harvard's first black faculty member was a dentist. Dr. George Franklin Grant joined the Dept of mechanical dentistry in 1871.

During his time at Harvard, Theodore Roosevelt became a member of the university boxing team. He was runner-up for the Harvard boxing championship, losing to C.S. Hanks. The sportsmanship Roosevelt showed in that fight was long remembered.

Upon becoming the first African-American to obtain a PhD from Harvard in 1895, W.E DuBois said: "The honor, I assure you, was Harvard's."

Harvard University  temporarily lost the title of "oldest university in the United States" when the US colonized the Philippines (1899-1946), as Manila's Universidad de Santo Tomas (founded 1611) predated Harvard by 25 years.

On September 9, 1947, a failure in an early computer at Harvard University was traced to a moth trapped in a relay. This is said to be the origin of programming errors being called "bugs". In fact the term "bug" had long been used for inexplicable engineering defects but the Harvard moth was the first bug caused by a real bug.

Future politician Edward Kennedy, scored the only touchdown for Harvard when they played Yale in 1955.

LSD became the favored psychedelic drug among the young in the 1960s, prompted by Harvard psychology professor, Timothy Leary, whose slogan about LSD: "Turn on, tune in, drop out"” was adopted by the hippie movement.

Harvard School of Business

A 1968 college football game between Harvard and Yale ended in a 29-29 tie, but the next day the Harvard Crimson ran the headline "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29," as Yale had been so heavily favored that the tie was viewed as a de facto victory. The actor Tommy Lee Jones played on the Harvard team.

Harvard is officially free for those with less than $65,000 in annual family income. Harvard’s financial aid programs pay 100 percent of tuition, fees, room, and board for students from families earning less than $65,000 a year.

McDonald's rejects a higher percentage of applicants each year than Harvard.

The most commonly awarded grade at Harvard is an A.

Source Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia