On this Day in NU History

May 31, 1850: In downtown Chicago, nine men meet to plan the creation of what would become Northwestern University.

The group consisted of Grant Goodrich, John Evans, Orrington Lunt, Jabez Botsford, Henry W. Clarke, Andrew J. Brown, Rev. Richard Haney, R.H. Blanchard, and Zadoc Hall.

May 30, 2008: Northwestern University Archivist Patrick M. Quinn retires after 34 years of service.

May 29, 1943: Northwestern star athlete Russ Wendland, captain of both the baseball and basketball teams in 1943, is awarded the Big Ten Medal for Proficiency in Athletics and Scholarship.

May 28, 1919: Lynn Harold Hough named president of Northwestern.

May 27, 1950: Northwestern's Guy P. Youmans, a professor of bacteriology at the medical school, was selected to represent the nation at a world-wide conference dedicated to tuberculosis prevention.

May 26, 1961: Governor Otto J. Kerner signed a bill allowing Northwestern University to purchase underwater property for $100 an acre for the purpose of creating the lakefill campus.

May 25, 1937: Major-General Smedly D. Butler, the retired Marine officer and famous lecturer known as "Old Gimlet Eye," addresses students in Patten Gym, demanding that they follow his advice on the topic of "Let's Mind Our Own Business."

May 24, 1870: Former Northwestern University President Henry Sanborn Noyes, who served from 1856-1858 and as interim President from 1960-1967, dies.

Noyes was also one of two original faculty members at the university, teaching mathematics.

May 23, 1940: Research on a project intended to discover a new method to measure the intensity of ultraviolet solar radiation begins at Northwestern.

Assistant professor of physics Robert J. Cashman collaborated on the invention of the phototube used in the experiment, which was conducted on top of Harris Hall.

May 22, 2005: The Northwestern Women's lacrosse team wins its first national championship, beating Virginia 13-10 and finishing the season undefeated.

May 21, 1952: Northwestern officials decide to pardon participants in a May 19th panty raid, dropping punishments and allowing the annual May Sing festival to continue as planned.

May 20, 1950: Northwestern President J. Roscoe Miller publically criticizes President Harry Truman's plan for socialized healthcare, claiming that the plan would encourage wasteful bureaucracy.

May 19, 1923: The death of Louis Aubere, a freshman at Northwestern, is ruled an accident after only brief deliberation. Aubere died in a hazing accident in which he was riding on the running board of an automobile at the time of a wreck.

May 18, 1932: Former Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas, speaking at Northwestern, warns students of a fascist threat to world peace.

May 17, 1965: The McCormick Trust donates $200,000 to the Northwestern University Medical School. The contribution helped fund the completion of surgery laboratories.

May 16, 1940: African American poet and playwright Langston Hughes reminds a crowd of some 200 people in Harris Hall that "At the bottom of our democracy are the 14 million Negroes in the United States."

May 15, 1942: Waa-Mu was cancelled for the duration of World War II and its profits from the 1942 production were invested in war bonds.

May 14, 1955: Northwestern's Jim Golliday ties a world record in the 100-yard dash sprint, running a 9.3 at a track meet in Dyche Stadium. Golliday is a charter member of Northwestern's Athletics Hall of Fame.

May 13, 1884: The Pandora, Northwestern's annual publication, first appears. This publication would later change its name to The Syllabus, Northwestern's current yearbook.

May 12, 1933: Animal trainer Edward Glendenning suffered severe injuries as the result of being attacked by an elephant during the Northwestern University circus and parade on Orrington Ave.

May 11, 1932: Northwestern president Walter Dill Scott declares the University untainted by Communist influence.

May 10, 1911: "Sporting Extra" edition of The Daily Northwestern, published anonymously, parodies the Woman's Edition. Its scurrilous articles about faculty and students scandalized the University.

The perpetrators of the publication were soon identified by their writing style, and expelled.

May 9, 1929: An edition of the Illinois Law Review is released in which Northwestern Law School Dean John H. Wigmore attacks the US Senate as being a "fifth-wheel." Wigmore added that the country "needs a Constitutional Mussolini."

May 8, 1925: Ground broken in ceremony for the initiation of constructions of the Chicago campus at Lake Shore Drive and Chicago Avenue.

May 7, 1890: The fifth Northwestern University President, Joseph Cummings, who served from 1881 to 1890 dies in office, causing classes to be canceled until the 12th.

May 6, 1923: The Chicago Daily Tribune's front page headline covers the abolition of hazing in Evanston at the order of Chief Leggett of the Evanston Police.

This decision was, in part, influenced by the discovery of the remains of Leighton Mount, a hazed student who had gone missing in September of 1921.

May 5, 1970: A campus wide strike at Northwestern University begins, in reaction to violence at student protests at Kent State University, lasting until the 12th of May.

May 4, 1911: William Jennings Bryan speaks at Northwestern on the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the King James Bible.

See more about Bryan, an NU Law alum.

May 3, 1968: The Black Student Sit-In at the Bursar's Office begins, lasting for 38 hours, after the University refused to accede to the demands of For Members Only, the black undergraduate student group.

For more on the sit-in at the Bursar's Office, see the Archives' Virtual Exhibit.

May 2, 1960: The 1960 Waa-Mu show, "Among Friends," featuring Ann-Margret, opens at Cahn Auditorium.

For more about Ann-Margret, see the Archives' Notable Alumni virtual exhibit. The Archives also holds the records of the Waa-Mu Show.

May 1, 1970: The Chicago Tribune reports that Northwestern will introduce co-educational housing.