PrincetonUniversity
 

A Princeton Profile 2001-02

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A Princeton Time Line
 

1696 -- Town of Princeton settled.

1746 -- College of New Jersey founded in Elizabeth, New Jersey, by the Presbyterian Synod. Jonathan Dickinson appointed first president.

1747 -- College moves to Newark under President Aaron Burr, Sr., its second president.

1748 -- Present charter granted in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

1753 -- Nathaniel and Rebeckah FitzRandolph and others deed 10acres in Princeton to the College.

1756 -- Nassau Hall completed; College of New Jersey moves from Newark to Princeton.

1757 -- Jonathan Edwards becomes third president.

1759 -- Samuel Davies installed as fourth president.

1761 -- Samuel Finley becomes fifth president.

1768 -- The Reverend John Witherspoon of Scotland installed as sixth president.

1769 -- American Whig Debating Society formed.

1770 -- Cliosophic Debating Society formed.

1776 -- President Witherspoon signs the Declaration of Independence.

1777 -- George Washington drives the British from Nassau Hall.

1783 -- Continental Congress meets in Nassau Hall, which served as a capitol of the United States from June until November.

1795 -- Samuel S. Smith becomes seventh president.

1812 -- Ashbel Green installed as eighth president.

1823 -- James Carnahan becomes ninth president.

1826 -- James Madison, Class of 1771 and former president of the United States, becomes the first president of the Alumni Association of the College of New Jersey.

1854 -- John Maclean, Jr. installed as tenth president.

1868 -- James McCosh of Scotland elected eleventh president.

1876 -- The Princetonian is published for the first time (still published daily by students during the academic year).

1883 -- Triangle Club (originally called Princeton College Dramatic Association) founded.

1888 -- Francis L. Patton becomes twelfth president; Princeton University Art Museum founded.

1893 -- Honor system established.

1896 -- Name officially changed to Princeton University.

1900 -- Graduate School established.

1902 -- Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, elected thirteenth president.

1905 -- President Wilson establishes system of preceptorials by junior faculty.

1906 -- Carnegie Lake created by Andrew Carnegie.

1912 -- John G. Hibben installed as fourteenth president.

1913 -- Graduate College dedicated.

1914 -- Palmer Stadium completed.

1919 -- School of Architecture established.

1921 -- School of Engineering established.

1928 -- Princeton University Chapel dedicated.

1930 -- School of Public and International Affairs established.

1933 -- Harold W. Dodds becomes fifteenth president; Albert Einstein becomes a life member of the Institute for Advanced Study, with an office on the Princeton campus.

1940 -- Program of Annual Giving established. Undergraduate radio station (then WPRU, now WPRB) founded.

1948 -- Firestone Library dedicated.

1951 -- Forrestal Campus established on U.S. Route 1; "Project Matterhorn" research in nuclear fusion begins there. In 1961 its name is changed to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

1957 -- Robert F. Goheen installed as sixteenth president.

1962 -- $53 million fund-raising campaign, under President Robert F. Goheen, concludes. It exceeded its goal and raised $61 million.

1964 -- Ph.D. degree awarded to a woman for the first time.

1969 -- Trustees vote to admit women undergraduates.

1970 -- Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), a deliberative body of faculty, students, staff, and alumni, is established.

1971 -- Third World Center founded.

1972 -- William G. Bowen becomes seventeenth president.

1982 -- System of residential colleges established.

1986 -- A five-year "Campaign for Princeton" concludes under President William G. Bowen after raising $410.5 million.

1988 -- Harold T. Shapiro installed as eighteenth president.

1996 -- The University celebrates its 250th anniversary (1746&endash; ).

2000 -- For its 100th anniversary on December 13, 2000, the Graduate School kicks off its year-long set of events and programs in May. A five-year "Anniversary Campaign" concludes under President Harold T. Shapiro after raising $1.14 billion.

2001 -- Shirley M. Tilghman becomes nineteenth president.

 

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