2022
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa ’86 returned to campus to receive Alumni Day honors, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, Graduate School class of 2012
2020
Supreme Court ruled to restore DACA after hearing lawsuit presented by Princeton, Microsoft and Princeton graduate Maria Perales Sanchez
2018
The first 13 transfer students are offered admission as part of a reinstated transfer program, which aims to especially encourage applications from students with low-income, military or community college backgrounds
2017
Nobel Laureates Toni Morrison and Arthur Lewis honored by the naming of Morrison Hall and the Arthur Lewis Auditorium
Princeton issues a new planning framework, proposing the construction of two additional residential colleges and the Meadows Neighborhood.
2013
Christopher L. Eisgruber named 20th president of Princeton
2009
Program in Latino Studies established
Bridge Year Program begins with 20 students deferring admission for one year to engage in international service
2007
Center for African American Studies (CAAS) established; trustees approve African American studies concentration, department in 2015
Four-year residential college system launched with the opening of Whitman College
2006
University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts established (renamed the Lewis Center for the Arts in 2007), with a mandate to enhance the role of the arts in the University and community
Princeton launches the Office of Disability Services
2005
Princeton launches the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center
2001
Shirley M. Tilghman named 19th president of Princeton
Financial aid policy changes, replacing loans with grants that do not need to be repaid
Princeton confers its first honorary degree on a Native American, Kevin Gover '78, a Pawnee/Comanche
1996
250th anniversary celebrated
1994
Center for Jewish Life established
1982
System of residential colleges established
1971
Third World Center founded (renamed the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding in 2002) and Women's Center are founded
1970
Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), a deliberative body of faculty, students, staff and alumni, is established
Members of the Class of 1970 are the first women to receive undergraduate degrees from Princeton (alumnae shown at 2015 Reunions); women also matriculate as members of the Classes of 1971, ’72 and ’73.
1969
Trustees vote to admit women undergraduates
1968
Carl A. Fields is appointed as assistant dean of the college, becoming the first African American to serve as dean at an Ivy League institution
Suzanne Keller becomes the first tenured female member of the faculty.
1964
Ph.D. degree awarded to a woman, T'sai-ying Cheng, for the first time
1955
Princeton appoints its first African American professor, Charles T. Davis
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 (PPPL)
1948
Firestone Library dedicated
Helen Baker, associate director of the Industrial Relations Section, is the first woman appointed to the faculty by the Board of Trustees
James Everett Ward and Arthur Jewell Wilson Jr., both admitted to the Navy's V-12 Program in 1945, become Princeton's first African American graduates
1947
The Student Hebrew Association is founded and holds the first Jewish service on campus, which is attended by Albert Einstein; a year later, the student organization joins the Hillel Foundation
1940
Program of Annual Giving established; undergraduate radio station (then WPRU, now WPRB) founded
1933
Albert Einstein becomes a life member of the Institute for Advanced Study, with an office on the Princeton University campus
1930
School of Public and International Affairs established
1928
Princeton University Chapel dedicated
1921
School of Engineering established
1919
School of Architecture established; Princeton's Army ROTC unit established
1913
Graduate College dedicated
1906
Lake Carnegie created by Andrew Carnegie
1905
President Woodrow Wilson establishes system of preceptorials
1900
Graduate School established
1896
Name officially changed to Princeton University
1893
Honor system established
1888
Pedro Rioseco becomes the first known Hispanic graduate from Princeton
1883
Triangle Club (originally called the Princeton College Dramatic Association) founded
1882
Princeton University Art Museum founded
1876
Hikoichi Orita becomes the first known Asian graduate from Princeton
The Princetonian is published for the first time (still published daily by students during the academic year)
1842
William Potter Ross graduates from Princeton; he became principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1861
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
1792
John Chavis becomes the first African American to study at Princeton; he is one of a handful of African Americans to pursue private studies with faculty members during the 18th century
1783
Continental Congress meets in Nassau Hall, which served as the United States Capitol from June until November
1777
George Washington drives the British from Nassau Hall
1776
President John Witherspoon signs the Declaration of Independence
1770
Cliosophic Debating Society formed
1769
American Whig Debating Society formed
1756
Nassau Hall completed; College of New Jersey moves from Newark to Princeton
1753
Nathaniel and Rebeckah FitzRandolph and others deed 10 acres in Princeton to the College
1748
Present charter granted in New Brunswick, New Jersey
1747
College moves to Newark, New Jersey
1746
College of New Jersey founded in Elizabeth, New Jersey, by the Presbyterian Synod
1696
Town of Princeton settled