University Milestones
| 1824 |
March 9 |
Leland Stanford born |
| 1828 |
Aug. 25 |
Jane Lathrop Stanford born |
| 1861 |
Sept. 4 |
Leland Stanford elected governor
of California |
| 1868 |
May 14 |
Leland Stanford Jr. born |
| 1869 |
May 10 |
Leland Stanford drives Gold Spike
at Promontory, Utah, for the first transcontinental railroad |
| 1884 |
March 13 |
Leland Stanford Jr. dies at age 15
|
| 1885 |
Jan. 28 |
Leland Stanford elected U.S. senator from California |
| |
Nov. 11 |
Founding Grant of the university
executed |
| 1887 |
May 14 |
Cornerstone of the university
laid |
| 1891 |
March 22 |
David Starr Jordan accepts Leland Stanford's offer to become the university's first president |
| |
May 14 |
Cornerstone of the museum laid |
| |
Oct. 1 |
Opening Day of the university; 555
students registered the first year |
| 1892 |
March 19 |
First Big Game with Cal |
| |
June 27 |
Hopkins Marine Station established
on Monterey Bay |
| 1893 |
June 21 |
Leland Stanford dies |
| 1894 |
May 30 |
First Ph.D. awarded |
| 1895 |
May 29 |
Pioneer Class graduates, including
Herbert Hoover |
| 1896 |
April 4 |
First women's intercollegiate basketball
game |
| 1899 |
May 31 |
Amendment to Founding Grant limits
number of women students to 500 |
| 1903 |
Jan. 25 |
Memorial Church dedicated |
| 1905 |
Feb. 28 |
Jane Lathrop Stanford dies |
| 1906 |
April 18 |
Great San Francisco Earthquake causes
extensive damage |
| 1908 |
Oct. 30 |
Cooper Medical College transferred to Stanford |
| |
Dec. 18 |
School of Law organized |
| 1913 |
May 23 |
School of Medicine organized |
| |
Aug. 1 |
John Casper Branner takes office as second president |
| 1916 |
Jan. 1 |
Ray Lyman Wilbur takes office as third president |
| 1917 |
April 27 |
School of Education organized |
| |
|
Thomas Welton Art Gallery completed |
| 1919 |
June 20 |
Hoover War Collection (now Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace) established |
| |
July 14 |
Main Library opens |
| 1921 |
May 23 |
Honor Code adopted |
| 1925 |
May 15 |
School of Engineering organized |
| |
Sept. 30 |
Graduate Business School opens |
| 1930 |
Jan. 1 |
First round of golf at the Stanford
Golf Course |
| 1933 |
May 11 |
Board of Trustees resolution allows
for enrollment of more than 500 women students |
| 1937 |
|
Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna House
constructed |
| 1941 |
June 16-20 |
University's 50th anniversary celebrated and Hoover Tower dedicated |
| 1943 |
Sept. 1 |
Donald B. Tresidder takes office as fourth president |
| 1946 |
|
Creative Writing Program founded by Wallace Stegner |
| 1947 |
Jan. 6 |
First broadcast of campus radio station KSU (later KZSU) |
| |
|
School of Mineral Sciences (now Earth Sciences) organized |
| 1948 |
Sept. 1 |
Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities and Physical Sciences and Social Sciences merged into School of Humanities and Sciences |
| 1949 |
April 1 |
Wallace Sterling takes office as fifth president |
| 1951 |
Oct. 1 |
First research park lease signed with Varian Associates |
| 1952 |
April 1 |
Biology Professor Douglas Whitaker becomes first provost |
| |
Nov. 6 |
Physics Professor Felix Bloch becomes Stanford's first Nobel laureate |
| 1958 |
June 24 |
First overseas campus opened near Stuttgart, Germany |
| 1959 |
August |
Planning begins for the radio telescope called "the Dish" |
| |
Sept. 17 |
School of Medicine building dedicated |
| 1965 |
Jan. 1 |
Computer Science Department founded |
| 1967 |
Sept. 9 |
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center dedicated, now called the SLAC National Accelerator Center |
| 1968 |
Sept. 12 |
Inaugural session, Senate of the
Academic Council |
| |
Dec. 1 |
Kenneth Pitzer takes office as sixth president |
| 1970 |
Sept. 24 |
Richard Lyman takes office as seventh president |
| 1973 |
Jan. 9 |
University trustees designate Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve |
| 1974 |
Feb. 11 |
B. Gerald Cantor donates his collection of Rodin sculptures |
| 1980 |
Aug. 1 |
Donald Kennedy takes office as eighth president |
| 1985 |
|
Rodin Garden established next to museum |
| 1989 |
Oct. 17 |
Loma Prieta earthquake causes extensive damage |
| 1991 |
Oct. 1 |
University celebrates centennial of its opening |
| 1992 |
Sept. 1 |
Gerhard Casper takes office as ninth president |
| 1996 |
May |
Stanford Graduate Fellowships program announced |
| 1997 |
Sept. 25 |
Stanford Introductory Seminars launched |
| 1998 |
September |
Stanford Alumni Association integrated into the university |
| |
September |
Science and Engineering Quadrangle opens |
| 1999 |
January |
The Leland Stanford Jr. Museum reopens as part of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts |
| |
August |
Green Library West reopens as Bing Wing |
| 2000 |
May 2 |
The foothills surrounding "the Dish" become a habitat conservation area |
| |
Oct. 20 |
John Hennessy is inaugurated as Stanford's10th president |
| 2001 |
May 2 |
The Hewlett Foundation's $400 million gift is the largest in university history |
| 2003 |
Oct. 17 |
The James H. Clark Center is dedicated |
| 2005 |
Dec. 31 |
Campaign for Undergraduate Education raises more than $1 billion |
| 2006 |
Oct. 10 |
$4.3 billion Stanford Challenge fundraising campaign announced |
| 2008 |
March 4 |
Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building dedicated |
| 2009 |
Jan. 12 |
Precourt Institute for Energy established |
| 2010 |
|
New buildings include the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Building, the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, Center for the Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge, the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center and the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building. |
| 2011 |
April |
Stanford earns its 100th NCAA team national title. |
