|
| 1849 | New state Constitution, which articulated need for higher education |
| 1853 | Contra Costa Academy founded |
| 1855 | Charter granted for College of California, becoming the successor to the Contra Costa Academy. |
| 1860 | The College of California opens its doors in Oakland to 10 freshmen. |
| 1862 | Morrill Act paves way for state money for a state university |
| 1866 | California Legislature creates an Agricultural Mining and Mechanic Arts College |
| 1867 | Trustees of the College of California vote to give all their property to the state, hoping they create a state university |
| 1868 | Governor Henry Haight signs an act creating the University of California March 23--Charter Day. |
| 1869 | A "tiny band of scholars"--10 faculty members, 40 students--are on hand when the University opens in Oakland, with "Colleges" of Agriculture, Civil Engineering, Letters, Mechanics, and Mining. |
| 1870 | Henry Durant, Congregational minister and Yale alumnus, becomes the
first president of the University. The first women students (17) enroll. |
| 1871 | The first Greek letter society established at the University is the lota chapter of Zeta Psi. |
| 1872 | Daniel Coit Gilman becomes the second president,
incorporating an influence of European universities. Regent Edward Tompkins' gift established the first "chair of learning" in Oriental languages and literature. Graduates, most from the College of California, form an alumni association. First endowed chair, gift of Edward Tompkins. |
| 1873 | Twelve young men, thereafter known as the "12
Apostles," receive the first UC diplomas. Classes begin at Berkeley for 199 students on completion of North and South Halls. (South Hall still stands.) |
| 1882 | Rugby is established as Cal's first sports team. |
| 1887 | Student self-government becomes organized as Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). |
| 1892 | The first "Big Game" is played between Cal and Stanford; the Farm wins 14-10. |
| 1893 | UC Press publishes its first book. |
| 1896 | The Regents call for an international competition to provide an architectural plan for the University. Phoebe Apperson Hearst (later the first woman Regent) funds the competition. |
| 1898 | The College of Commerce, later the School of Business Administration, opens. |
| 1899 | Benjamin Ide Wheeler, from Cornell, becomes UC's eighth president, ushering in a golden age of growth and consoltion. |
| 1903 | John Galen Howard begins executing UC Berkeley's architectural plan and establishes the Department of Architecture. His legacy includes Sather Gate and Sather Tower (the Campanile), Hearst Greek Theatre, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Wellman Hall, Doe Library, California Hall, Gilman Hall, LeConte Hall, Wheeler Hall, and California Memorial Stadium. |
| 1905 | The University purchases a collection of
western Americana and Spanish-American historical materials
from Hubert Howe Bancroft to be installed in the fledgling
Bancroft Library, now one of the
world's outstanding collections. Serious injuries prompt presidents of Cal and Stanford to abolish football. From 1906 to 1914, the two universities play rugby instead. |
| 1912 | Doe Library is dedicated. |
| 1914 | The Jane K. Sather Tower, more popularly known as the Campanile for its resemblance to the campanile of St. Mark's Plaza in Venice, takes its place as Berkeley's chief landmark. |
| 1919 | The University establishes the "Southern Branch" in Los Angeles. The faculty begins a "revolt" against the Regents' power, gaining over the next few years increased power for itself and UC's president in academic areas. |
| 1928 | Cal crew wins the first of three Olympic gold medals in Amsterdam. |
| 1929 | The first residence hall for students, Bowles Hall, opens, funded by private gifts. |
| 1930 | Robert Gordon Sproul '13 becomes the 11th president
of the University. International House opens. A gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., funds the the purchase of the land and construction. UC enrolls almost 10 percent of all international students in the U.S. |
| 1931 | Ernest O. Lawrence conducts the first successful operation of a cyclotron. |
| 1933 | In the midst of the Depression, UC cuts programs and reduces salaries in response to a one-third cut in the budget. |
| 1939 | Ernest O. Lawrence becomes Berkeley's first Nobel laureate, winning the prize in physics for inventing the atom-smashing cyclotron. |
| 1941 | Professors Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan participate in the discovery of plutonium and in 1951 share the Nobel Prize for chemistry. |
| 1942 | The campus turns its energy to war work, and the curriculum is revised to include "national service courses." During the war, male enrollment drops more than 50 percent, and many males are Army and Navy members in officer training programs. |
| 1943 | UC officially takes over operation of the government laboratory at Los Alamos, N.M., that is continuing the work of Berkeley faculty and others in the development of the atomic bomb. Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led earlier LeConte Hall discussions about the bomb, is the director. |
| 1945 | Berkeley completes $57 million worth of
government-sponsored World War II research. Its partnership
with the federal government sets the stage for continued high
levels of research sponsored by the government and, later,
industry, transforming Cal into a major research university. The United Nations Charter was translated, designed, and printed in four days at Berkeley in time for signing by delegates to the historic session in San Francisco. |
| 1946 | Returning GIs double Berkeley enrollment to more than 25,000, severely straining facilities. |
| 1952 | Clark Kerr, professor of industrial relations, is named Berkeley's first chancellor. |
| 1958 | Kerr becomes UC's 12th president, and Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg succeeds him as Berkeley chancellor. |
| 1961 | The UC Regents name a fountain on Sproul Plaza after
a German short-haired pointer named Ludwig von Schwanenberg,
who had played in it daily. A new student union opens, now called the Martin Luther King, Jr., Student Union. |
| 1962 | President John F. Kennedy addresses 90,000 people in Memorial Stadium on Charter Day. This event represents the largest public event in UC history. |
| 1964 | Students demonstrate against rules that prohibit certain political activities on campus, leading to what later became the Free Speech Movement. |
| 1966 | In a comparative study of graduate departments, the American Council on Education named Berkeley the "best balanced distinguished university in the country." Harvard is second. |
| 1969 | Student protests take place over use of three-acre lot near People's Park, leading eventually to action by the National Guard. |
| 1973 | Enrollment in the fall quarter exceed 30,000 for the first time. |
| 1980 | Berkeley's first Nobelist outside of the sciences, poet Czeslaw Milosz |
| 1982 | Berkeley is rated the strongest graduate institution
across the board in a national study by four academic
organizations. Cal beats Stanford with "The Play," a five-lateral kickoff return for a touchdown as time runs out. |
| 1986 | Clark Kerr Campus opens in honor of the UC president emeritus and first Berkeley chancellor. |
| 1988 | For the first time, no ethnic group forms a majority among undergraduates. |
| 1989 | The Berkeley faculty approves the American Cultures requirement: students must take a course that examines the experiences in, and contributions to, American culture of a mixture of ethnic groups. |
| 1990 | Chang-Lin Tien
becomes chancellor. Berkeley's "Keeping the Promise" capital campaign ends, having raised more money, $470 million, than that raised by any other public university. |
| 1995 | English Professor Robert Hass named poet laureate by the Library of Congress, first poet from the western U.S. to win the honor. |
| 1996 | The Rugby team wins its sixth consecutive national championship, 13th title for Cal since the tournament began in 1980. |
| 1997 | Robert M. Berdahl becomes Chancellor. |
| 2000 | Daniel L. McFadden wins the Nobel prize for Economics. |
This list is an amalgam of various sources:
- Johnson, Dean C. The University of California: History and Achievements. U.C. Press, 1996.
- General Catalog of the University of California, Berkeley, '97 - '99
- CalFacts 1997 pamphlet
- Steven Morgan Friedman's own research.
