UW Chronology

1849: The first class meets on Feb. 5. Seventeen men from the Madison area are the first students under the direction of Professor John Sterling.

1851: The first building on campus, North Hall, opens. It is used as a classroom and dormitory.

1854: The first degrees are awarded to Levi Booth and Charles T. Wakeley.

1861: The Wisconsin Alumni Association is founded.

1863: The first women are admitted to the Normal Department.

1866: The university is designated as a land-grant institution.

1874: President John Bascom grants women full coeducational status.

1877: The first major gift is given to the university -- $43,000 from Cadwallader Washburn for the building of an observatory.

1879: Music Hall and Washburn Observatory are built.

1885: The Marching Band is founded.

1886: As a UW undergrad, Frank Lloyd Wright works part time on construction of Science Hall, inspiring him to join a Chicago architectural firm.

1890: Stephen Babcock develops the Babcock butterfat test.

1891: University Extension is established.

1892: The first Ph.D. is awarded to Charles R. Van Hise.

1892: The Daily Cardinal begins publishing.

1893: Frederick Jackson Turner delivers his essay about the significance of the frontier in American history.

1894: The academic freedom statement, more commonly known as the ``sifting and winnowing'' statement is adopted by the Regents.

1894: The Red Gym opens.

1896: Wisconsin wins its first Big Ten football championship.

1898: UW music instructor Henry Dyke Sleeper uses a 19th century Latin hymn to compose ``Varsity.''

1903: Agriculture Hall is built.

1904: The Wisconsin Idea tradition begins under President Charles R. Van Hise.

1907: The Wisconsin Union, the second in the nation, is founded.

1909: William Purdy and Carl Beck write the music and words of ``On Wisconsin.''

1909: The bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln is placed in front of Main Hall, later named Bascom Hall.

1913: E.V. McCollum discovers Vitamin A.

1916: E.V. McCollum and Margaret Davis discover Vitamin B.

1916: A fire destroys the dome of Main Hall.

1917: WHA radio begins broadcasting.

1920: President E.A. Birge renames Main Hall to Bascom Hall.

1921: The first course over radio is broadcast.

1924: Harry Steenbock's successful Vitamin D experiments help wipe out infantile rickets.

1924: Wisconsin General Hospital opens.

1925: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is chartered.

1928: Memorial Union opens.

1930: Harry Harlow begins exploration of how monkeys learn, earning the National Medal of Science.

1930: Memorial Union offers an outing club (Wisconsin Hoofers).

1933: Memorial Union becomes the country's first public university union to serve beer.

1934: The UW Arboretum is dedicated.

1934: UW Band Director Ray Dvorak adds the tradition of the right-arm swing to the singing of ``Varsity.''

1936: John Steuart Curry is artist-in-residence, the first of its kind at an American university.

1937: Conrad Elvehjem leads a team that discovers a cure for pellagra.

1939: Aldo Leopold develops the nation's first department of wildlife management.

1939: Wisconsin Union Theater opens.

1940: Belgium's Pro Arte Quartet performs in Madison. The university offers the quartet a permanent home on campus.

1940: The McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, the first basic-science cancer center at a U.S. university, opens.

1941: The basketball team defeats Washington State, 39-34, to win the NCAA championship.

1945: The University Foundation is created.

1950s: Charles Heidelberger discovers the anti-cancer drug fluorouracil.

1951: University researchers are successful with an experiment leading to the procedure called embryo transplant.

1954: Alan Ameche is awarded the Heisman Trophy.

1959: Verner Suomi becomes the first American to conduct a weather experiment from space using the Explorer satellite.

1950s-1960s: Elizabeth and James Miller become leaders in cancer research.

1950s: Harry Waisman develops a test for phenylketonuria (a genetic disorder that can cause retardation).

1967: The Biotron opens, the first research building where environmental conditions can be precisely controlled.

1967: A series of antiwar protests begin.

1968: The first bone marrow transplant in the United States is performed at University Hospital.

1969: The Badger Herald begins publishing.

1969: The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research inherits every Warner Bros. film from 1931 to 1949.

1970: The Faculty Senate replaces meetings of the whole faculty.

1970: Sterling Hall is bombed.

1971: The University of Wisconsin is merged with the State Universities.

1975: Howard Temin receives the Nobel Prize for his discovery of retroviruses.

1978: The Pail and Shovel Party won election to UW student government, leading to the creation of the Statue of Liberty on frozen Lake Mendota and a flock of pink flamingos on Bascom Hill.

1979: The Clinical Science Center opens.

1983: The School of Veterinary Medicine admits its first class.

1984: The University Research Park is founded.

1988: Donna Shalala becomes the first woman to lead the university.

1989: Students begin registering for classes over the telephone.

1993: Grainger Hall is built.

1993: Students are given electronic mail accounts.

1994: Experiments by Hector DeLuca and colleagues open the way to advances in the treatment of osteoporosis.

1994: Wisconsin wins its first Rose Bowl, defeating UCLA.

1996: Stanley Kutler wins the court battle allowing the public release of more than 4,000 hours of Richard Nixon's White House tape recordings.

1997: The Kohl Center is completed.

1999: Wisconsin wins its second Rose Bowl, again defeating UCLA.

1999: The University celebrates its sesquicentennial.

1999: Ron Dayne is awarded the Heisman Trophy. He becomes the all-time leading rusher in NCAA football.

2000: Wisconsin wins its third Rose Bowl, defeating Stanford. The UW became the first Big Ten school to win consecutive Rose Bowls.

2000: Wisconsin's men's basketball team appears in the Final Four championship, while the women's team wins the WNIT tournament.