February 8, 1575 - University of Leiden Netherlands opened; gift from William of Orange to the citizens of Leiden who had withstood a long siege by the Spaniards; oldest university in the Netherlands.

October 5, 1665 - The University of Kiel is founded.

May 24, 1683 - University of Oxford opened The Ashmolean, world's first university museum; designed to display its collections, organized so that Oxford University could use it for teaching purposes, regularly opened to the public; 1677 - English archaeologist Elias Ashmole donated his collection of curiosities to Oxford University, and the school's directors planned the construction of a building to display the items permanently. Acclaimed English architect Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned for the job.

February 8, 1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA; February 13, 1693 -College opens.

October 9, 1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut founded in the home of Abraham Pierson, its first rector, in Killingworth, CT; 1716 - school moved to New Haven; 1718 - renamed Yale College in consideration of generous gift by Elihu Yale of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait and arms of King George I.

October 22, 1746 - Princeton University in New Jersey received its charter.

July 17, 1754 - King's College opened in New York City; the Anglican academy would later become Columbia University.

November 10, 1766 - The last Colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College; 1771 - opened with lone instructor, single sophomore, handful of first-year students; 1825 - name changed to Rutgers University to honor a former trustee and Revolutionary War veteran, Colonel Henry Rutgers.

December 13, 1769 - Royal Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, conveyed the charter from King George III establishing Dartmouth College; provided the land upon which Dartmouth would be built; Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, a Congregational minister from Connecticut, founded Dartmouth College. Named for William Legge, the Second Earl of Dartmouth  (important supporter of Eleazar Wheelock's efforts); nation's ninth oldest college and the last institution of higher learning established under Colonial rule. 1815 - Dartmouth became the stage for a constitutional drama that had far-reaching effects. Claiming its 1769 charter invalid, the New Hampshire legislature established a separate governing body for the College and changed its name to Dartmouth University. The case was argued in the United States Supreme Court by Daniel Webster, a graduate in the Class of 1801. February, 1819 - landmark decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed the validity of the original charter. The Dartmouth College Case, as it has come to be known, is considered to be one of the most important and formative documents in United States constitutional history, strengthening the contract clause of the Constitution and thereby paving the way for all American private institutions to conduct their affairs in accordance with their charters and without interference from the state.

December 5, 1776 - Five students at the College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) gather at Raleigh’s Tavern to found a new fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa. Intended to follow strictly American principles as opposed to those of "England or Germany," the new society engaged in the fervent political debate typical of student life at Thomas Jefferson’s college in Virginia’s capital.

November 27, 1779 - The College of Philadelphia, considered a Royalist institution, was converted into the University of the State of Pennsylvania; created both America's first state school and first official university; 1791 - the school became a privately endowed institution and took the name of the University of Pennsylvania.

1783 - Benjamin Rush, a prominent Philadelphia physician, prepared the charter for Dickinson College; September 9, 1783 - A struggling grammar school in Carlisle, PA was transformed into Dickinson College; named for John Dickinson, known widely as the "Penman of the Revolution" and the governor of Pennsylvania.

January 27, 1785 - The Georgia General Assembly incorporates the University of Georgia, the first state-funded institution of higher learning in the new republic; 1786 - future university’s board of trustees met for the first time in Augusta, Georgia, chose Yale University alumnus Abraham Baldwin as president , drafted the school’s charter; 1918 - university began admitting women; 1961 - after a three-year legal battle, Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes became the first African-American students to enroll at the University of Georgia.

March 10, 1787 - Pennsylvania legislature granted charter and act of incorporation for "Franklin College"; June 6, 1787 - College dedicated; founded by three members of the Constitutional Convention (George Clymer, Robert Morris, and Thomas Mifflin) and four of the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Clymer, Morris, Thomas McKean, and Dr. Benjamin Rush) with a contribution of 200 English pounds from Benjamin Franklin, then the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania to promote the assimilation of Pennsylvania’s Germanic population as contributing citizens of the new republic; cosponsored by two religious denominations (German Lutheran and Reformed); July 16, 1787 - classes in a brew house (left margin);  April 19, 1850 - Pennsylvania state legislature passed an act to consolidate Marshall College with Franklin College in Lancaster, PA; March 1, 1853 - united with Marshall College (founded in 1836 in Mercersburg, PA by the German Reformed Church), formed Reformed Church institution that combined the resources of both schools; James Buchanan, four years shy of becoming the 15th president of the United States, was named president of the first Franklin & Marshall board of trustees; post WW II - longstanding connection to the German Reformed Church was severed, College became a secular institution; number of students rose from 900 students to 1900 students today;13th  oldest institution of higher education in the United States

January 23, 1789 - Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, DC.

June 22, 1793 - Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted a charter to Williams College; named for Colonel Ephraim Williams of Massachusetts militia who bequeathed his residuary estate ($9,297) for the founding and support of a free school in West Township; October 9, 1793 - college opened with an undergraduate enrollment of 20; October 26, 1791 - Free School opened with enrollment of 65 students; May 1792 - trustees petition the Massachusetts General Court to convert the Free School into a college to be named Williams Hall.

October 12, 1793 - The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina; February 13, 1795 - UNC opened.

June 24, 1794 - Massachusetts Governor Samuel Adams signs an act to establish Bowdoin College. Named for James Bowdoin, American founder and first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780). He was a scientist prominent in physics and astronomy, and wrote several papers including one on electricity with Benjamin Franklin, a close friend. Bowdoin was also a political leader in Massachusetts during the American revolution (1775-83), and governor of Massachusetts (1785-87). His library of 1,200 volumes, ranged from science and math to philosophy, religion, poetry, and fiction. He left it in his will to the Academy; 1820 - Maine ceases to be a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and becomes its own state.

September 10, 1794 - Legislature of the Southwest Territory chartered Blount College (named for Governor William Blount) in Knoxville, TN;  1807 - name changed to East Tennessee College; 1840 - changed to East Tennessee University; 1869 - designated by the state legislature as the land-grant institution of the state, thereby the recipient of the proceeds of the properties allocated by law to Tennessee; 1879 - changed to University of Tennessee.

1795 - Union College founded in Schenectady, NY; first college chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York; one of the oldest nondenominational colleges in the country.

1799 - Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York.

March 16, 1802 - Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY; July 4, 1802 - USMA opened.

February 18, 1804 - First U.S. land-grant college, Ohio University, Athens Ohio, chartered; oldest public institution of higher learning in the state of Ohio, first in the Northwest Territory.

March 6, 1808 - First college orchestra in U.S. founded at Harvard.

September 9, 1817 - Alexander Lucius Twilight, probably first black to graduate from U.S. college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College.

1819 - Captain Alden Partridge founded Norwich University in Norwich, VT, as "The American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy"; first private military college in the United States and the birthplace of the nation's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program; Partridge's American System of Education linked military science and training with a broad "civil" curriculum.

1821 - Amherst College is founded as Amherst Collegiate Institution; 1825 - Massachusetts Legislature grants charter to create Amherst College; August 24, 1825 - College adopts corporate seal and motto. The seal shows a sun and a Bible illuminating a globe with the motto "Terras Irradient" ("Let them enlighten the lands") underneath.

1821 - McGill University is chartered at Montreal; Royal Institute for the Advancement of Learning (RIAL) became the governing body; 1829 - began holding classe in the merchant's former country house; 1833 - College awarded a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery to its first graduate, William Leslie Logie. 1813 - Local politician-fur trader-merchant, James McGill, died, left £10,000 and a 46-acre estate to RIAL, a body designed to establish a formal educational system in Lower Canada colony, for the establishment of a college or a university bearing his name.

February 23, 1821 - Philadelphia College of Pharmacy founded in Philadelphia; first U.S. pharmacy college.

August 12, 1821 - Universidad de Buenos Aires, largest university in Argentina, founded in the city of Buenos Aires; orígenes son anteriores a la Revolucion de Mayo, la Declaracion de la Independencia y la Constitucion Nacional; la mision de promover, difundir y preservar la cultura y prestar particular atencion a los problemas argentinos, aportando mediante sus docentes que forman a las jovenes generaciones, y sus graduados que intervienen activamente en la vida social, política y economica.

1822 - Episcopal Bishop John Henry Hobart opened Geneva College founded; 1852 - renamed Hobart College; 1908 - William Smith School for Women, a coordinate, nonsectarian women's college ,enrolled its first class of 18 students; named for local wealthy businessman who, shortly after the turn of the century, began pursuing an interest in creating a liberal arts college for women; 1922 - the first joint commencement was held; 1941 - coeducational classes had become the norm; 1943 - William Smith College was elevated from its original status as a department of Hobart College to that of an independent college, co-equal with Hobart; established a joint corporate identity, adopting a "family name," The Colleges of the Seneca, which still is the legal name of the combined corporation.

November 5, 1824 - Stephen van Renssalaer founded the Renssalaer School in Troy, NY; January 5, 1825 - nation’s oldest technological university, first engineering college in the U.S. opened with the purpose of instructing persons, who may choose to apply themselves, in the application of science to the common purposes of life"; 1833 - name of Renssalaer Institute adopted; April 8, 1861 - name of Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute adopted. 

November 26, 1825 - The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, NY.

1826 - University College, London established.

February 11, 1826 - London University founded.

March 15, 1827 - University of Toronto is chartered.

October 1, 1829 - South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; later to become the University of Cape Town.

April 18, 1831 - Inaugural ceremonies held and the University of Alabama opened in Tuscaloosa; 1860 - The University of Alabama became a military school — martial departmental and disciplinary systems established; 1892 - University's first football team assembled — the "Thin Red Line" that later became the "Crimson Tide"; March 1903 - Alabama Legislature decreed that, after thirty years of student protest, the military system of organization at the University be abandoned; 1956 - UA's first African-American student, Autherine J. Lucy, was admitted. She was expelled three days later "for her own safety" in response to threats from a mob (1992 - graduated from the University with a master's degree in education, her daughter graduated with a bachelor's degree in corporate finance).

May 26, 1831 - Charter was granted for founding of Wesleyan University by Methodist leaders and Middletown (CT) citizens; instruction began with 48 students of varying ages, the president, three professors, and one tutor; tuition was $36 per year; named for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.

1832 - Anti-slavery theologian Samuel Simon Schmucker founded Pennsylvania College; July 1, 1863 - first day of Battle of Gettysburg; 1921 - renamed Gettysburg College; oldest Lutheran affiliated college in United States.

March 16, 1833 - Susan Hayhurst becomes the first woman to graduate from a pharmacy college (Philadelphia College of Pharmacy).

December 3, 1833 - Oberlin Collegiate Institute became the first coeducational college in the United States with an enrollment of 29 men and 15 women.

December 10, 1836 - The Georgia General Assembly granted the Georgia Methodist Conference a charter to establish a college to be named for John Emory, a popular bishop who had presided at the 1834 conference but had been killed in 1835 in a carriage accident (had inspired them by his broad vision for an American education that would mold character as well as mind); September 17, 1838 - Emory University classes began for fifteen students.

1837 - Chemist and educator Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary; November 8, 1837 - school opened; first of the Seven Sisters; 1893 - seminary curriculum phased out, institution's name changed to Mount Holyoke College.

1837 - Ministers of the Concord Presbytery in North Carolina opened Davidson College as a manual labor institute to approximately 64 students and three professors, including the first president, Robert Hall Morrison; subjects included moral and natural philosophy, evidences of Christianity, classical languages, logic, and mathematics; named in honor of American Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, a local Revolutionary War hero who died at the battle of Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781 trying to prevent General Charles Cornwallis’s army from crossing the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; January 1, 1836 - Concord Presbytery buys 469 acres of land from Mr. William Lee Davidson II in the amount of $1,521; college is named for his father.

November 11, 1839 - The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.

June 24, 1841 - Right Rev. John Hughes, Coadjutor-Bishop (later Archbishop) of New York established St. John's College on old Rose Hill Manor in the village of Fordham (derived from the Anglo-Saxon words "ford" and "ham," meaning a wading place or ford by a settlement), then part of Westchester County; opened with a student body of six, originally staffed by diocesan clergy; 1846 - New York State Legislature granted the School a charter; 1907 - name officially changed to Fordham University.

October 16, 1841 - Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

December 20, 1842 - The South Carolina Legislature passed an act establishing the South Carolina Military Academy; 1843 - thirty-four students, tuition of $200; February 18, 1865 - ceased operation as a college when Union troops entered Charleston, occupied the site; 1882 - Board of Visitors regained possession, The South Carolina Legislature passed an act to reopen college; session began with an enrollment of 185 cadets; 1910 - name changed to The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina.

January 15, 1844 - The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

April 24, 1844 - David Stewart was appointed the first professor of pharmacy in the U.S., for two years, at the Maryland College of Pharmacy, in Baltimore, MD; duties were on a full-time basis to instruct students in the theory and practice of pharmacy.

February 1, 1845 - The Republic of Texas chartered Baylor University; oldest institution of higher learning in the state and the largest Baptist university in the world; 1841 - 35 delegates to the Union Baptist Association meeting accepted the suggestion of Reverend William Milton Tryon and District Judge R.E.B. Baylor to establish a Baptist university in Texas.

October 10, 1845 - Naval School opened in Annapolis, MD with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors; 1850 - officially became the U.S. Naval Academy and a new curriculum went into effect - required midshipmen to study at the academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer--the basic format that remains at the academy to this day; June 10, 1854 - The U. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, holds its first graduation.

February 25, 1847 - State University of Iowa (University of Iowa) is approved; Iowa's first public institution of higher learning.

October 16, 1848 - Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), the first homeopathic college in the U.S., began preliminary instruction.

February 4, 1849 - University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students.

1850 - Society of Mary (the Marianists) founded University of Dayton.

October 11, 1850 - The University of Sydney is established in Sydney, Australia, with a staff of three professors and 24 students as the nation's oldest university.

1851 - Union Institute Academy is re-chartered by the Legislature of North Carolina as Normal College, and its graduates are licensed to teach in the public schools of the state; 1859 - Name changed to Trinity College upon affiliation with the Methodist Church. The motto "Eruditio et Religio," meaning "Knowledge and Religion," was adopted; 1892 - Trinity College relocated to Durham. Washington Duke and Julian S. Carr persuaded the Board of Trustees to move the college to their progressive "New South" city. Duke contributed $85,000 for buildings and endowment and Carr donated the site, which is now East Campus; 1896 - Washington Duke contributed $100,000 for endowment supplementing it by a like amount in 1899 and 1900; 1922 - Chronicle (student newspaper) editors begin using the nickname "Blue Devils" for the athletic teams. "Les Diables Bleus" was the nom de guerre of a regiment of French alpine troops widely known for their exploits in World War I; 1924 - Duke University is founded, being named in honor of Washington Duke and his family; December 11, 1924 - James B. Duke signed the indenture of trust establishing The Duke Endowment, a family philanthropic foundation that supports education, religion and health care in the Carolinas;.

January 28, 1851 - Northwestern University in Chicago chartered.

1852 - Charles Tufts, American businessman in brickmaking industry, founded Tufts College; donated 100 acres; 1954 - name changed to Tufts University.

1854 - Anthony Maraschi, S.J., an Italian immigrant, arrived in San Francisco, borrowed $11,500 to build a Jesuit church and school on a few sand dunes on the south side of Market Street; October 15, 1855 - school opened its doors to its first class (3 students); 1858 - 65 students; 1859 - Fr. Maraschi incorporated the institution under California state law, obtained a charter to issue college degrees, formed a board of trustees, renamed the institution Saint Ignatius College (later University of San Francisco); 1863 - 474 students enrolled in all divisions of the institution.

April 29, 1854 - By an act of the Pennsylvania legislature, Ashmun Institute, the first college founded solely for African-American students, is officially chartered to give theological, classical, and scientific training; named after Jehudi Ashmun, the U.S. agent who helped reorganize and preserve the struggling African-American colony in Africa that later grew into the independent nation of Liberia; January 1, 1857 - Institute opened, John Pym Carter served as the college's first president; 1866 - the institution was renamed Lincoln University.

1855 - Oren B. Cheney, Dartmouth graduate and minister of the Freewill Baptist denomination, founded the Maine State Seminary; first coeducational college in New England; 1863 -  petitioned Maine Legislature for change in charter to permit a collegiate course of study; changed school's name to Bates College in honor of Benjamin E. Bates, Boston industrialist and philanthropist who made substantial early gifts to the school.

April 28, 1855 - First veterinary college in U.S. incorporated in Boston.

August 20, 1856 - Wilberforce University of the Methodist Episcopal Church forms in Ohio; named for 18th century English statesman and abolitionist William Wilberforce; first university owned and operated by African-Americans, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church; oldest private African-American university in the United States; 1867 - first bachelor's degrees awarded.

February 16, 1857 - Congress incorporates Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind; 1954 - name changed to Gallaudet College in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the first school for deaf students in the United States.

April 30, 1857 - George W. Minns founded California's first public institution of higher education, located in San Francisco; 1862 - became California State Normal School; 1871 - State Normal School moves to San José; 1881 - branch campus is established in Los Angeles (later became UCLA); 1887 - State Normal School becomes San José State Normal School; 1921 - renamed San José State Teachers College; 1974 - renamed San José State University; oldest public institution of higher education on the West Coast.

March 22, 1858 - Iowa State University was officially founded when Iowa decided to establish a State Agricultural College and Model Farm.

February 26, 1861 - Matthew Vassar, self-made businessman, founded Vassar Female College in Poughkeepsie, NY; world’s first "fully-endowed institution for the education of women"; fall of 1865 - opened; 1867 - name changed to Vassar College.

November 4, 1861 - The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University.

July 2, 1862 - Congress passes the College Land Grant Act of 1862, Morrill Act (sponsored by Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont); committed the Federal Government to grant each state 30,000 acres of public land, laid the foundation for a national system of state colleges and universities; new land-grant institutions emphasized agriculture and mechanic arts, opened opportunities to thousands of farmers and working people previously excluded from higher education.

1863 - Massachusetts Agricultural College established in Amherst, MA; 1867 - The University of Massachusetts-Amherst founded as a land-grant agricultural college set on 310 rural acres with four faculty members, four wooden buildings, 56 students and a curriculum combining modern farming, science, technical courses, and liberal arts; 1892 - first female student enrolled and graduate degrees were authorized; 1932 - became known as the Massachusetts State College; 1947 - became the University of Massachusetts.

1863 - Edward Payson Heald opened the first Heald College in San Francisco, CA to prepare students for business careers by providing them with career education that focused on practical, hands-on learning.

1864  - Members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) found Swarthmore College; February 12, 1908 - Anna Jeanes bequeaths $1,000,000 (from coal fields and mineral rights) to Swarthmore; largest in school history.

April 29, 1864 - Theta Xi, a fraternity, was founded -- in Troy, New York.

April 27, 1865 - Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White founded Cornell University; October 7, 1868 - Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, NY; held opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the most at any American university to that date. 

February 20, 1865 - MIT forms first U.S. collegiate architectural school.

October 1865 - John Ogden, the Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath, and the Reverend Edward P. Smith established the Fisk School in Nashville, TN; named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who provided the new institution with facilities in former Union Army barracks near the present site of Nashville's Union Station; January 9, 1866 - first classes convened; August 22, 1867 - Fisk University incorporated.

1866 - Maryland State Normal School opened in downtown Baltimore with goal of training its 11 students to teach in  state’s public school system; 1997 - renamed Towson University.

November 20, 1866 - Ten members of the First Congregational Society of Washington, DC discussed the founding of Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Teachers and Preachers; January 8, 1867 - Institute's name changed to Howard University (after General Oliver Otis Howard, founding member of the university, commissioner of the Freeman's Bureau, Civil War hero, college's third president); March 2, 1867 - Congress passed charter, officially incorporated the University; May 1, 1867 - Howard University opened.

1867 - University of Illinois chartered as the Illinois Industrial University; March 2, 1868 - opened.

1867 - Centenary Biblical Institute founded and chartered; 1890 - name changed to Morgan College; 1939 - became public college, known as Morgan State College; 1975 - renamed Morgan State University by the Maryland state legislature.

February 14, 1867 - The Rev. William Jefferson White, an Augusta Baptist minister and cabinetmaker, established Augusta Institute; 1879 - changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary; 1913 - Atlanta Baptist College was named Morehouse College in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, the corresponding secretary of the Northern Baptist Home Mission Society.

March 15, 1867 - Michigan becomes first state to tax property to support a university.

March 5, 1868 - University of California created ("Charter Day"); March 23, 1868 - Governor signed into law the Organic Act that created the University of California; September 1873 - University, with an enrollment of 191 students, moved from Oakland to to Berkeley (named after George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, who, during a visit to America in 1729, spoke of educating and converting to Christianity the "aboriginal Americans"); 1873 - twelve members in Cal's first graduating class.

April 1, 1868 - Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong (29) founded Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute to prepare promising young African-American men and women to lead and teach their newly-freed people; 1922 - baccalaureate degrees awarded; 1924 - name changed to Hampton Institute; 1984 - name changed to Hampton University.

May 6, 1869 - The Indiana General Assembly decided to locate an educational institution near Lafayette, IN, accepted $150,000 from John Purdue, $50,000 from Tippecanoe County, and 100 acres of land from local residents; named it Purdue University; September 16, 1874 - Classes began with six instructors and 39 students.

October 16, 1869 - England's first residential college for women, Girton College, Cambridge, is founded.

1870 - Ohio General Assembly established the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College; September 17, 1873 - Twenty-four students met at the old Neil farm just two miles north of Columbus; 1878 - college's name was changed to The Ohio State University; first class of six men graduated; 1879 - university graduated its first woman.

January 27, 1870 - First Greek sorority for women (Kappa Alpha Theta) organized at DePauw U in Greencastle, Indiana.

March 17, 1870 - Governor William Claflin signed the charter of Wellesley Female Seminary founded by Boston lawyer Henry Fowle Durant (changed his name in 1851 from Henry Welles Smith) and his wife, Pauline Durant; later named Wellesley College; September 1875 - first students arrived.

1871 - Smith College chartered after $387,468 bequest by Sophia Smith to found a women's college in Northampton, MA; money used to buy the first land, erect the first buildings and begin the endowment; 1875 - opened; nation’s largest liberal arts college for women.

February 7, 1872 - Alcorn A and M College opens.

September 21, 1872 - John Henry Conyers of South Carolina becomes first black student at Annapolis.

October 1872 - Charles Minor opened small land-grant agricultural institution in Blacksburg, VA; consisted of 29 students, 3 faculty members, single building; became Virginia's largest university-Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

July 1, 1873 - Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Georgia, in 1856, is second black to enter West Point; was never spoken to by a white cadet during his four years; June 15, 1877 - first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian Territory; July 1, 1870 - the first African American cadet, James Webster Smith, was admitted into the academy but never reached the graduation ceremonies.

1874 - Colorado College founded, two years before Colorado became a state; General William Jackson Palmer, founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, laid out the city of Colorado Springs along his new rail-line from Denver. General Palmer contributed funding and set aside a plot of land destined to become Colorado College. He staffed the college with a small faculty of traditionally trained liberal arts scholars from New England and dedicated the resources necessary not only to build the campus but also to attract top minds.

July 31, 1874 - Patrick Francis Healy, SJ, inaugurated as President of Georgetown University.

November 11, 1874 - Gamma Phi Beta sorority is founded at Syracuse University.

February 22, 1876 - Johns Hopkins University opened with the inauguration of its first president, Daniel Coit Gilman; named for Johns Hopkins,  founder of Hopkins & Brothers (sold wares in the Shenandoah Valley from wagons in exchange for corn whiskey which was then sold in Baltimore as "Hopkins' Best");  invested heavily in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (source of most of his fortune); 1857, 1873 - put up his own money to bail out the railroad; 1867 - left US$7,000,000 (mostly in B&O stock) for the foundation of the University and Johns Hopkins Hospital = largest philanthropic bequest in United States history (equivalent of approximately US$86,542,022 in 2003 dollars).

October 1876 - University College, Bristol opened with two professors, five lecturers and 99 students. It was the first college in the country to admit men and women on an equal footing; May 24, 1909 - King Edward VII signed charter for new University of Bristol; October 1909 - opened with 288 undergraduates, some 400 other students. Henry Overton Wills became its first chancellor.

June 15, 1877 - Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, GA, is the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point (ever spoken to by a white cadet during his four years ); appointed a second lieutenant in the all-African American 10th Cavalry, stationed at Fort Sill in Indian Territory.

1880 - Group of Black politicians, led by former U.S. Senator P.B.S. Pinchback of New Orleans; a distinguished legislator, T.T. Allain of Iberville; and Henry Demas of St. John Parish petitioned the State Constitutional Convention to establish a school of higher learning for "colored" people; April 10, 1880 - Southern University came into existence by the passage of ACT 87 of the Louisiana General Assembly (date on which funds were appropriated by the State of Louisiana for the establishment of an institution of higher learning for African Americans).

April 11, 1881 - Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, opens; 1884 - name changed to Spelman Seminary in honor of Mrs. Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry Spelman, longtime activists in the antislavery movement; 1924 - changed to Spelman College.

July 4, 1881 - Alabama House Bill 165 authorized founding of Tuskegee Institute in a one room shanty, near Butler Chapel AME Zion Church; thirty adults represented the first class; Dr. Booker T. Washington the first teacher; 1985 - attained University status.

February 28, 1882 - First U.S. college cooperative store opens, at Harvard University.

March 12, 1884 - Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women, the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.

October 6, 1884 - The Naval War College was established in Newport, RI.

November 11, 1885 - Leland Stanford dictated the Founding Grant for Stanford University; provided the endowment and defined the scope, responsibilities and organization of the university; October 1, 1891 -Stanford University opens its doors.

1886 - Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, founded on New York's Lower East Side; 1896 - Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) founded (1897 - chartered by New York State Board of Regents); 1915 - two schools merged, formed Yeshiva College; November 16, 1945 - university status granted by New York State Board of Regents; first U. S. Jewish college.

March 31, 1887 - Massachusetts Legislature enacted The Act of incorporation for Clark University (founded by Jonas Gilman Clark); October 2, 1889 - Clark University opened as first all-graduate institution in the United States (departments of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and psychology); 1902 - offered undergraduate liberal arts education.

1888 - Las Cruces College opens as an agricultural college (Las Cruces College) and preparatory school; January 21, 1890 - Las Cruces College merged with New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts; 1960 - school's name was changed to New Mexico State University.

1890 - American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago opened on land donated by Marshall Field, owner of Chicago department store; non-denominational; welcomed women and minority students at a time when many universities did not; 1892 - first classes.

1890 - Methodist bishop John Fletcher Hurst buys some ninety acres of farmland on which to build a nonsectarian, national university; 1891 - University is incorporated as "The American University" under laws of District of Columbia; Bishop Hurst is elected chancellor; 1893 - American University chartered by an Act of the United States Congress; May 27, 1914 - President Woodrow Wilson officially dedicated the university.

1890 - Oklahoma Territorial Legislature created University of Oklahoma; August 1892 - University's first president, David Ross Boyd, arrived in Norman, OK; 1895 - four faculty members, three men and one woman, and 100 students enrolled; 2006 - almost 31,000 students, Norman's largest employer, city itself has grown to a population of more than 103,000 residents.

1891 - Anthony J. Drexel, financier and philanthropist, founded Drexel Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry; 1936- became the Drexel Institute of Technology; 1970 - gained university status, became Drexel University.

May 13, 1891 - Massachusetts-born businessman William Marsh Rice chartered the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science, and Art as a gift to the city of Houston, where he made his fortune; established $200,000 endowment. The terms of the charter required that work on the new institute would begin only after Rice's death; September 23, 1912 - Rice Institute opened with 77 students and a dozen faculty; 1960 - formally redesignated as Rice University.

July 9, 1891 - Yale University admitted Irene Coit, first woman.

February 23, 1892 - First college student government forms at Bryn Mawr (PA).

April 22, 1892 - Winstar Institute of Anatomy and Biology incorporated, first anatomy school in the U.S. It took its name from the benefactor, Gen. Isaac James Wistar in memory of his granduncle, Caspar Winstar, who was the first American physician to write an anatomy text book.

1893 - Philip Armour donated $1 million to found the Armour Institute of Technology (a privately endowed coeducational college); 1940 - merged witrh the Lewis Institute to become the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

1895 - Beatrice and Sidney Webb founded London School of Economics (LSE) after a bequest to the Fabian Society of some £20,000 by Henry Hunt Hutchinson; aim of the School was the betterment of society. By studying poverty issues and analyzing inequalities, the Webbs sought to improve society in general. Sidney Webb had a vision of 'a centre not only of lectures on special subjects but an association of students who would be directed and supported in doing original work.'  October 1895 - first classes held; February 1922 - School's motto was adopted (suggested by Professor Edwin Cannan from Virgil's Georgics): rerum cognoscere causas means to know the causes of things. The industrious beaver emblem was chosen in the same year.

1896 - Chase School founded, named after American impressionist painter William Merrit Chase, who led a small group of Progressives who seceded from the Art Students League of New York in search of freer, more dramatic and individual expression; 1904 - Frank Alvah Parsons joined Chase; 1910 - became the School's president; presided over: first program in Fashion Design; first program in Interior Design; fist program in Advertising and Graphic Design; 1939 - School's name changed to Parsons School of Design.

March 20, 1897 - First U.S. orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary (RIETS) incorporates in New York.

April 8, 1898 - Cornell University created the first U.S. college of forestry upon the signing of a state law by the New York governor; Dr. Bernhard Fernow, a Prussian-born and trained forester, was the first head of the forestry department ; 1882 - he helped found the American Forestry Congress; 1886 - chief of the new Division of Forestry in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

October 1, 1898 - The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.

November 15, 1900 - Industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie founded Carnegie Technical Schools (headed by Arthur Hamerschlag); 1912 - renamed Carnegie Institute of Technology ("Carnegie Tech"); 1967 - merged with Mellon Institute, renamed Carnegie Mellon University Mellon University.

June 20, 1901 - Charlotte Manye is first native African, from South Africa, to graduate from a U.S. college (Wilberforce University, Ohio); first South African woman to earn a Doctorate in Arts and Humanities.

November 1, 1901 - Sigma Phi Epsilon, a national men's collegiate fraternity, is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, VA.

November 27, 1901 - The Army War College was established in Washington, DC.

April 4, 1902 - British financier Cecil Rhodes left $10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University in England.

1903 - Lucy Skidmore Scribner and other civic minded residents found the Young Women's Industrial Club; 1911 - Skidmore School of Arts chartered.

1904 - Leeds University established.

1905 - Dr. Frank Damrosch, head of music education for the New York City schools, son of Leo Damrosch (founder of New York Philharmonic), godson of Franz Liszt, founds the Institute of Musical Art; 1924 - trustees of largest single bequest for the advancement of music at that time, from Augustus D. Juilliard, wealthy textile merchant, founded the Juilliard Graduate School; 1926 - Institute of Musical Art and Juilliard merged as the Juilliard School of Music.

1906 - Homer and Charles Pace founded Pace Institute as a business school for men and women who aspired to a better life; borrowed $600, established Pace & Pace partnership to prepare students for the New York CPA examination - Pace School of Accountancy; 1933 - reorganized, divided school into three areas: School of Marketing, Advertising & Selling, School of Credit Science, School of Accountancy,1935 - incorporated as non-profit institution of higher education in New York State; May 17, 1935 - New York State Board of Regents granted provisional charter; 1942 - granted absolute charter; December 20, 1948 - New York State Board of Regents approved application for college status, permitted awarding of BBA degree; 1973 - officially recognized school's petition to become full-fledged Pace University.

December 4, 1906 - Alpha Phi Alpha, the first national college fraternity for African-American men, was founded at Cornell University.

1907 - Frederick Meyer, cabinet shop owner and teacher at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (both destroyed in 1906 earthquake), founded the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, CA to provide an education for artists and designers that would integrate both theory and practice in the arts; $45 in cash, forty-three students, three classrooms, and three teachers; 1922 - bought four-acre James Treadwell estate at Broadway and College Avenue in Oakland; 1936 - renamed the California College of Arts and Crafts; 1996 - opened a new permanent San Francisco campus to house the architectural and design programs; 2003 - renamed California College of the Arts.

1907 - Imperial College, London, is established.

1908 - Reed College was founded; named for Oregon pioneers Simeon and Amanda Reed. Simeon Reed had been an entrepreneur in trade on the Columbia River; in his will he suggested that his wife could "devote some portion of my estate to benevolent objects, or to the cultivation, illustration, or development of the fine arts in the city of Portland, or to some other suitable purpose, which shall be of permanent value and contribute to the beauty of the city and to the intelligence, prosperity, and happiness of the inhabitants." Amanda Reed followed that suggestion in her will by setting up a board of trustees to found an institution of learning in Portland, with no limits other than an insistence on equality and secularism.

1908 - University of Alberta opened as a board-governed public institution.

September 14, 1908 - Walter Williams, youngest-ever (25) president of the Missouri Press Association, with the blessing of the University of Missouri and the state legislature and with financial help from the Missouri Press Association, started world's first school of journalism held its first day of classes, and the faculty-run, student-staffed Columbia Missourian published its first issue. Williams went on to become president of the University of Missouri.

March 1, 1909 - University of Minnesota established first U.S. university school of nursing.

October 10, 1910 - Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity is established at Columbia University.

1911 - United Methodist Church founded Southern Methodist University (SMU); 1915 - held first class.

May 15, 1911 - Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Indiana University, incorporates.

June 3, 1916 - President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Defense Act of 1916; brought military training under a single, Federally-controlled entity (Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) for the first time.

1919 - California Gov. William D. Stephens signs Assembly Bill 626, establishing the Southern Branch of the University of California; September 15, 1919 - Vermont Avenue campus opens, offering two-year undergraduate programs to 250 Letters and Science students and 1,250 students in the Teachers College; 1923 - awards first Bachelor of Education to 28 students; 1925 - UC Regents choose a 384-acre parcel of the Wolfskill Rancho in Westwood as new site for the Southern Branch campus; 1927 - Regents adopt the name University of California at Los Angeles; September 23, 1929 - classes begin with 5,500 students enrolled at Westwood.

September 3, 1919 - Babson Institute held first classes for 27 students in former home of Roger and Grace Babson on Abbott Road in Wellesley Hills, MA; 1969 - renamed Babson College.

October 14, 1920 - University of Oxford degrees were conferred on women for the first time.

July 7, 1923- University of Delaware invents "junior year abroad" (at Sorbonne).

April 1, 1925 - Hebrew University, Jerusalem, opened.

March 29, 1928 - Yeshiva College (now University) chartered (New York City).

April 1, 1929 - Morehouse College, Spellman College and Atlanta University affiliate.

May 11, 1929 - Dr. Annie Webb Blanton forms Delta Kappa Gamma Society in Austin TX.

May 22, 1946 - Frances Roth and Katharine Angell, wife of former Yale University President James Rowland Angell, opened the New Haven Restaurant Institute; intended to provide vocational training for World War II veterans; 50 students enrolled the first year; 1947 - name changed to Restaurant Institute of Connecticut; 1951 - name changed to The Culinary Institute of America to reflect the diversity of the student population; 1981 - only school authorized to administer the American Culinary Federation's (A.C.F.) master chef certification exam.

March 31, 1954 - The US Air Force Academy was established at Colorado Springs, CO; July 11, 1955 - dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado; June 3, 1959 - The first class of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduated.

August 7, 1955 - Bar-Ilan University opened, in Israel.

September 24,1962 - University of Mississippi agreed to admit James Meredith as the first black university student; September 30, 1962 - Meredith is escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. Marshals, setting off a deadly riot. Two men were killed before the racial violence was quelled by more than 3,000 federal soldiers. The next day, Meredith successfully enrolled and began to attend classes amid continuing disruption.

August 18, 1963 - James Meredith, 30-year-old Air Force veteran, became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi (bachelor of arts degree in political science); first Negro alumnus in the 115-year history of the school.

September 30, 1964 - First large-scale anti-Vietnam war demonstration in the United States is staged at the University of California at Berkeley, by students and faculty opposed to the war.

October 1, 1964 - The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.

November 14, 1968 - Yale University announced that it will become co-ed.

1969 - Open University established in Britain, teaching via radio and TV.

August 14, 1970 - City University of New York inaugurates open admissions.

April 23, 1971 - Student strike closes Columbia University operations.

February 7, 1972 - Title IX was passed, a US law guaranteeing gender equality in federally-funded school programs, including athletics.

September 16, 1975 - Rhodes Scholarships were first offered to women.

October 21, 1975 - Coast Guard Academy allows women to enroll.

June 28, 1976 - Women entered the Air Force Academy for the first time.

July 6, 1976 - The United States Naval Academy admitted women for the first time; 81 female midshipmen inducted.

July 7, 1976 - Female cadets enrolled at West Point; May 28, 1980 - 62 female cadets graduated, commissioned as second lieutenants.

October 6, 1978 - Hannah H. Gray inaugurated as first female head of U.S. university (University of Chicago).

May 21, 1980 - Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a US service academy, from the Coast Guard Academy.

March 13, 1988 - Gallaudet University, a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.

August 14, 1995 - Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina's state military college (quit the school less than a week later).

June 26, 1996 - The Supreme Court ordered the Virginia Military Institute to admit women or forgo state support.

June 28, 1996 - The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.

September 21, 1996 - The board of Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.

August 18, 1997 - Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history.

May 8, 1999 - The Citadel, South Carolina's formerly all-male military school, graduated its first female cadet.

2006 - According to Harris Interactive, a market research firm, 17 million people are now enrolled in U. S. Colleges, largest number in history; spend $182 billion per year, $46 billion of which is discretionary (up from 12% from 2005).

2008 - College Endowments (76 U. S. colleges and universities had endowments valued at more than $1 billion (source: National Association of Colleges and University Business Oficers)

May 2008  - Late 1960s and early 1970s: about one out of every three young men got a bachelor’s degree; last four decades - somewhere between 30-35% of men have graduated from a four-year college by age 35; 1960s- only 25% of women received a college degree; 2008 - almost 40%  will get one; Nearly half of new doctors today are women (up from 1 of every 10 in the early 1970s); average inflation-adjusted weekly pay of women has jumped 26% since 1980 (up just 1% for men since 1980); full-time female workers with a bachelor’s degree made 75% as much as their male counterparts in 1992 — and 75% as much in 2007; across the whole work force, full-time women made 79% as much as full-time men in 2007, up from 75% in 1992.

(Admissions), Marcia Graham Synnott (1979). The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 310 p.). Harvard University--Admission--History; Yale University--Admission--History; Princeton University--Admission--History.

(Admissions), Michele A. Hernandez (1997). A is for Admission: The Insider’s Guide To Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges. (New York, NY: Warner Books, 266 p.). Assistant Director of Admissions at Dartmouth from 1992 to 1997. Universities and colleges--United States--Admission; Universities and colleges--United States--Entrance requirements.

(Admissions), Rachel Toor (2001). Admissions Confidential: An Insiders Account of the Elite College Selection Process. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 256 p.). Former Admissions Officer (Duke University). Duke University--Admission; Universities and colleges--United States--Admission; College administrators--United States--Biography. Look into the admissions process from an admissions officer at Duke.

(Admissions), Michele A. Hernandez (2002). Acing the College Application: How To Maximize Your Chances for Admission to the College of Your Choice. (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 222 p.). Assistant Director of Admissions at Dartmouth from 1992 to 1997. College applications--United States--Handbooks, manuals, etc.; Universities and colleges--United States--Admission--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 

(Admissions), Jacques Steinberg (2002). The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College. (New York, NY: Viking, 292 p.). National Education Correspondent (New York Times). Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)--Admission; Universities and colleges--United States--Admission--Case studies. Admissions process for one year at Wesleyan University.

(Admissions), Jerome Karabel (2005). The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 720 p.). Professor of Sociology (University of California, Berkeley). Universities and colleges--Atlantic States--Admission; Education, Higher--United States--History. History of admissions from 1900 to today: century-long battle over opportunity, ever-changing definition of "merit" in college admissions, how it shaped—and was shaped by—the country at large.

(Alcorn State), Josephine McCann Posey (1994). Against Great Odds: The History of Alcorn State University. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 216 p.). Alcorn State University--History.

(Amherst), Frank Henry Parsons (1911). Thirty Years After; A Record of the Class of Eighty-One, Amherst College. (New Haven, CT: Press of the Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 214 p.). Amherst College.

(Amherst), Claude Moore Fuess (1935). Amherst, The Story of a New England College. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and company, 372 p.). Amherst College--History.

--- (1955). Stanley King of Amherst. (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 374 p.). King, Stanley, 1883-1951.

(Antioch), Compiled and Edited, with an Epilogue by Edla M. Dixon (1991). Antioch: The Dixon Era, 1959-1975: Perspectives of James P. Dixon. (Saco, ME: Bastille Books, 232 p.). Antioch College--History.

(Arizona State), Ernest J. Hopkins and Alfred Thomas, Jr. (1960). The Arizona State University Story. (Phoenix, AZ: Southwest Pub. Co., 305 p.). Arizona State University--History.

(Augusta College), Edward J. Cashin with Helen Callahan (1976). A History of Augusta College. (Augusta, GA: Augusta College Press, 189 p.). Augusta College (Augusta, Ga.)--History.

(Averett College), J.I. Hayes (1984). A History of Averett College. (Danville, VA: Averett College Press. Averett College--History; Danville (Va.)--History.

(Averett College), Jack Irby Hayes, Jr. (2004). The Lamp and the Cross: A History of Averett College, 1859-2001. (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 252 p.). Averett College--History. 

(Ball State), Anthony O. Edmonds and E. Bruce Geelhoed (2001). Ball State University: An Interpretive History. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 350 p.). Director for the Center for Middletown Studies, Professor of History (Ball State University). Ball State University--History. 

(Baruch), Selma C. Berrol (1989). Getting Down to Business: Baruch College in the City of New York, 1847-1987. (New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 267 p.). Professor of History at Baruch College (City University of New York). Bernard M. Baruch College--History; Business schools--New York (State)--New York--History. College's ability to meet the needs of New York City as it grew.

(Baylor University), Lois Smith Murray (2005). Baylor at Independence. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 412 p.). Baylor University--History--19th century. 

(Beijing University), Timothy B. Weston (2004). The Power of Position: Beijing University, Intellectuals, and Chinese Political Culture, 1898-1929. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 325 p.). Assistant Professor of History (University of Colorado at Boulder). Beijing da xue -- History; Higher education and state -- China -- History; Political culture -- China -- History. Center of China's greatest political, cultural upheavals; how Beida's historical importance (China's oldest and best-known national university) has come to transcend that of a mere institution of higher learning; key locus used by intellectuals to increase their influence in society; links between intellectuals' political and cultural commitments and their specific manner of living; comparison of Beijing's intellectual culture with that of the rising metropolis of Shanghai.

(Bentley), Paul Solomon & Brian Smith (1992). Bentley College: A 75-Year Portrait. (Louisville, KY: Harmony House, 112 p.). Bentley College--Pictorial works; Bentley College--History.

(Berkeley), Henry Mayer (1968). The Culture of the University: Governance and Education. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 288 p.). Historian and Critic. University of California, Berkeley; Universities and colleges --