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Legislature Guarantees Access to Public Schools

March 25, 1845
March 25, 1845

Legislature Guarantees Access to Public Schools

On this day in 1845, the Massachusetts legislature guaranteed that every child in the state would have access to a public school. One source of pressure on the lawmakers was a petition submitted by a...

Harvard Students Occupy University Hall

April 9, 1969
April 9, 1969

Harvard Students Occupy University Hall

On this day in 1969, Harvard students took over University Hall, one of the college's oldest buildings. Opposed to the escalating war in Vietnam, the protesters demanded Harvard end its Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or...

Massachusetts Passes First Education Law

April 14, 1642
April 14, 1642

Massachusetts Passes First Education Law

On this day in 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The English Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that the well-being...

W.E.B. DuBois Returns to Harvard

April 23, 1904
April 23, 1904

W.E.B. DuBois Returns to Harvard

On this day in 1904, W.E.B. DuBois gave a lecture on "the race question" at Harvard, where nine years before he had been the first black person to receive a Ph.D. From his childhood in...

Composer Stravinsky Visits Gropius House in Lincoln

May 2, 1940
May 2, 1940

Composer Stravinsky Visits Gropius House in Lincoln

On this day in 1940, the German-born architect Walter Gropius and his wife Ise opened their new home in Lincoln to some old friends — the great composer Igor Stravinsky and his wife Vera. Gropius...

Ceremony Honors Early Indian Students

May 3, 1997
May 3, 1997

Ceremony Honors Early Indian Students

On this day in 1997, over 300 people gathered in Harvard Yard to commemorate a long forgotten part of the college's history. A plaque was unveiled that read, "Near this spot, from 1655 to 1698,...

Dewey Proposes Library Classification System

May 8, 1873
May 8, 1873

Dewey Proposes Library Classification System

On this day in 1873, Amherst College junior Melvil Dewey made a proposal to the faculty. He had been working in the college library and was frustrated by the lack of logic in the way...

Supreme Court Strikes Down "Separate but Equal"

May 17, 1954
May 17, 1954

Supreme Court Strikes Down "Separate but Equal"

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of separate but equal. "Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race . . . deprives the children of...

Springfield Dedicates Memorial to Dr. Seuss

May 31, 2002
May 31, 2002

Springfield Dedicates Memorial to Dr. Seuss

On this day in 2002, Springfield celebrated the completion of a memorial to a hometown hero, Dr. Seuss. Located in the Library and Museum Quadrangle is a bronze sculpture garden peopled with characters from Dr....

Ellen Swallow Marries Robert Richards

June 4, 1875
June 4, 1875

Ellen Swallow Marries Robert Richards

On this day in 1875, Ellen Swallow married M.I.T. Professor Robert Hallowell Richards. Three days later, they set off on a wedding trip to Nova Scotia — accompanied by Robert Richards's class in mining engineering....

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