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Historical Highlights
1865: Cornell University receives its charter; founded by Andrew Dickson White and Ezra Cornell.
1868: Jennie McGraw Chime peals out at Cornell’s inauguration ceremony.
1870: Cornell University opens its doors to female students—first major university in eastern U.S. to do so.
1873: Sage Chapel is the first voluntary chapel of a major American university.
1875: Sage Hall opens for women students; Sage Chapel dedicated.
1882: New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, N.Y. opens.
1898: Cornell University Medical College founded.
1906: Cornell becomes first institution for Alpha Phi Alpha, the first African American undergraduate fraternity.
1914: Cooperative Extension begun.
1925: Willard Straight Hall, one of the first student unions in the U.S., opens as the result of a gift by Dorothy Straight.
1929: Cornell is first university to have an interfaith department for religious affairs.
1930: Martha Van Rensselaer Hall becomes home to the School of Home Economics.
1945: School of Industrial and Labor Relations opens.
1952: Albert R. Mann Library opens.
1958: Netter Seminar instituted to bring management, labor, education, and government together to develop employment practices that embrace diversity and promote a fair workplace for all individuals.
1960: Food Research Building dedicated by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller in Geneva, N.Y.
1963: Ionospheric Observatory at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, opens.
1967: Hans A. Bethe, John Wendell Anderson Professor of Physics, receives Nobel Prize in Physics.
1969: Willard Straight Hall taken over by students.
1973: Johnson Museum dedicated.
1977: Frank H. T. Rhodes becomes ninth university president.
1981: Roald Hoffman, John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science, wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1982: Kenneth G. Wilson, James A. Weeks Professor in Physical Sciences, wins Nobel Prize in Physics.
1983: Barbara McClintock ’23, A.M. ’25, Ph.D. ’27, and A. D. White Professor at Large, 1965–74, wins Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
1987: New Statler Hotel and J. Willard Marriott Executive Education Center open.
1988: Toni Morrison, A.M. ’55, receives Pulitzer Prize for “Beloved”; Center for Theatre Arts opens.
1990: Cornell launches $1.25 billion campaign to celebrate Cornell’s 125th year anniversary.
1992: Professor David Feldshuh’s play, Miss Evers’ Boys, nominated for Pulitzer Prize.
1994: The late Carl Sagan, David C. Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, receives 1994 Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.
1995: Hunter R. Rawlings III becomes tenth university president.
1996: Cornell physicists Robert Richardson and David Lee win Nobel Prize in Physics.
1997: Large pumpkin appears on top of McGraw Tower; makes national news.
1998: Sage Hall renovation completed; dedicated as the new home of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.
1999: Piping for the Lake Source Cooling project is laid in Cayuga Lake.
2000: Duffield Hall, Cornell’s planned high-tech research facility in nanotechnology, named during a virtual naming ceremony; plans submitted to City of Ithaca.
2001: Phase I of Residential Initiative: North Campus Community welcomes all first-year students.
2002: New Life Sciences Initiative, to include genomics, chemical biology, environmental sciences, and biomedical engineering, announced.
2003: Jeffrey S. Lehman ’77, is inaugurated as the eleventh university president.
2006: David J. Skorton is inaugurated as the twelfth university president on the arts quad.
2006: Cornell University announces $4 billion capital campaign.
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