Williams College Timeline
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18th Century
March 15th, 1715 Ephraim Williams Jr., Founder of Williams College, is born in Newton, Mass. more »
November 13th, 1735 Rev. Stephen West, D.D., first Vice-President of Williams College, was born on this date at Tolland, Conn. He held this office for nineteen years, beginning in 1793 at the first meeting of the Williams Board of Trustees. more »
December 5th, 1753 Williamstown's first proprietors' meeting is held in Seth Hudson's house near Hemlock Brook.
July 22nd, 1755 Ephraim Williams, Jr. writes the will that leaves funds to establish the Free School that will later become Williams College. more »
September 8th, 1755 The college's founder, Ephraim Williams, Jr., dies at lake George in the battle of the Bloody Morning Scout. more »
November 11th, 1755 The will of Ephraim Williams is presented for probate in the court at Northampton, Massachusetts. more »
June 21st, 1765 West Hoosac is renamed Williamstown, fulfilling the first condition attached to Ephraim Williams, Jr.'s funding of a school near Fort Massachusetts. more »
March 8th, 1785 The Massachusetts General Court grants the charter to establish the Free School in Williamstown. more »
April 28th, 1790 The trustees of the Williamstown Free School advertise the sale of lottery tickets to support construction of a schoolhouse. The schoolhouse will eventually be named West College. more »
October 26th, 1791 The Williamstown Free School, precursor to Williams College, opens its doors to its first students. more »
May 22nd, 1792 The trustees of the Williamstown Free School write to the Massachusetts General Court asking to convert the School to a college named Williams Hall. more »
June 22nd, 1793 The Williamstown Free School becomes Williams College. more »
October 9th, 1793 Williams College first opens on this day in 1793. more »
September 2nd, 1795 Williams celebrates its first Commencement in the old town meeting house. more »
November 5th, 1795 The Adelphic Union--the first extra-curricular society at Williams--is officially established. more »
September 3rd, 1799 Williams College trustees abolish the position of professor of French. more »
19th Century
February 4th, 1802 Mark Hopkins, Williams's fourth president, is born in Stockbridge, Mass. more »
September 1st, 1802 "Voted: That the Treasurer be directed to procure a New College Seal, and also a screw for the same." (Board of Trustees minutes) more »
February 8th, 1812 The first five missionaries sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions are ordained in Salem, Mass. Among them are Gordon Hall (Class of 1808) and Luther Rice (Class of 1810). more »
November 2nd, 1819 President Zephaniah Swift Moore and the Trustees petition the Massachusetts General Court to move Williams College to Northampton.
February 1st, 1820 The Massachusetts Legislature refuses the petition of the President and Trustees to remove Williams College to Northampton. more »
July 17th, 1821 Zephaniah Swift Moore, second president of Williams College, resigns his presidency. more »
September 5th, 1821 Williams alumni approve the newly composed preamble and bylaws of the Society of Alumni, thereby forming the first alumni society anywhere. more »
April 17th, 1822 "It was directed by the Faculty that there shall be no instrumental music at Commencement or at any Exhibition except in the house, & that not more than four musicians shall be employed at Commencement, nor more than two at the Exhibitions." (from the Records of the Faculty of Williams College)
November 19th, 1831 James A. Garfield, Williams Class of 1856 and the 20th President of the United States, is born in Orange Township, Ohio. more »
July 4th, 1832 July 4th riots result in the expulsion of several students. more »
October 29th, 1833 Kappa Alpha is the first fraternity established at Williams. Legend has it that fourteen Williams students traveled to Union College to pick up a Phi Beta Kappa charter, but instead came back with one for the social fraternity.
August 25th, 1835 The first expedition of Williams's Lyceum of Natural History sails out of Boston bound for the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia. The first student expedition ever, the group is lead by Profs. Albert Hopkins and Ebenezer Emmons. more »
November 10th, 1836 Voted at the meeting of Faculty: "that hereafter from...November 'till the close of the first term, the prayer bell shall be rung at 1/2 past four on Saturday, Sabbath, and Wednesday evenings." more »
June 12th, 1838 Hopkins Observatory is dedicated.
August 15th, 1838 Nathaniel Hawthorne attends Williams College's Commencement. more »
January 30th, 1839 Samuel Chapman Armstrong, Class of 1862 and founder of Hampton Institute, is born on the island of Maui. more »
October 17th, 1841 The original East College--featuring four floors--burns to the ground. more »
July 18th, 1845 Ebenezer Kellogg, professor of Ancient Languages, sells the West College garden plot to the college. Formerly used to grow vegetables for student meals, the college will construct a new dormitory, named Kellogg Hall, on the plot. more »
August 5th, 1850 David Dudley Field, Jr. (Williams Class of 1825) gives a 'literary picnic' for Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville on Monument Mountain in Great Barrington.
August 11th, 1851 Herman Melville, with a party of friends and relatives, stays overnight in the observatory on Mount Greylock. more »
August 15th, 1854 Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks before the Adelphic Union, the student literary-debating society. Apparently James A. Garfield, Class of 1856 and future U.S. President, is so moved by the talk that he cannot sleep that night. more »
August 14th, 1855 Members of the Lyceum of Natural History dedicate Jackson Hall, their new headquarters located in the Berkshire Quad. more »
July 1st, 1859 The first intercollegiate baseball game is held between Williams and Amherst. Amherst wins 66-32.
May 7th, 1861 Thursday--Third term begins at Williams and undergraduates form a battalion and drilled an hour daily. "Intense excitement" created by the surrender of Fort Sumter caused many to enlist and four years of smaller incoming classes. (Journal, Geo.L.Raymond,1862) more »
October 9th, 1861 On this date Williams faculty voted to allow students to go out of town without excuse on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons...provided they are not absent from any college exercise.
May 2nd, 1863 The Alpine Club, the oldest mountain organization in the country, takes its first walk to Birch and Prospect Glens. more »
September 23rd, 1863 The Williams faculty vote to require student attendance at military drill. more »
July 15th, 1864 A group of seniors and juniors meet to establish a provisional chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Williams. more »
July 28th, 1867 Williams President Mark Hopkins dedicates the Mission Park Monument. more »
July 28th, 1868 On Alumni Day the Soldier's Monument is dedicated. Williams is the first college to commemorate its Civil War dead in this way.
November 10th, 1868 Williams students rebel against a faculty ruling that awards a zero for any absence from recitation, whether the absence is officially excused or not. more »
June 29th, 1871 The Society of Alumni appoints a committee to "examine into the expediency of admitting women as students to college." more »
October 28th, 1871 The student newspaper, the Vidette, announces that East College has been wired for telegraphic communication.
December 28th, 1871 One of Williams's favorite sayings is born: "The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other." more »
July 2nd, 1881 James A. Garfield, Class of 1856 and 20th President of the United States, is shot by a disgruntled office seeker in a Washington, D.C. railroad station. more »
July 3rd, 1883 A violent storm destroys the setting for the annual alumni dinner, smashing dishes, tables, and the building itself. more »
March 17th, 1896 Students vote 247 to 42 in favor of inaugurating a campus-wide honor code.
March 20th, 1896 Students awake to find that a portion of the east side of (old) Clark Hall has been loosened by the rain and has tumbled to the ground. more »
May 28th, 1898 Cap & Bells offers its first production, a comedy "For one night only." more »
20th Century
November 24th, 1904 With Morgan Hall ablaze, President Harry Hopkins calls in the North Adams fire department. Four men and two hose carts respond to help extinguish the fire by 9 pm. Damages are estimated at $30-35,000. more »
June 21st, 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt attends the dedication of Thompson Memorial Chapel during Commencement weekend.
November 3rd, 1908 The Williams Record posts Tuesday evening election returns in the office at Jesup Hall. ..."especial effort is made to announce result in a definite concise form". more »
October 12th, 1912 The Williams Record reports that the Trustees have voted to demolish the infamous College Hall, best known for serving the worst food on campus. more »
November 7th, 1912 The "Apple Growing Committee" of the Good Government Club sets date for Orchard Day (Williams Record). more »
January 24th, 1913 Dr. Eben Burt Parsons, Phi Beta Kappa, Class of 1859, passes away. Parsons was the secretary of the Faculty and Registrar of the College for 21 years. "Eby", as he was called by the students, served under four Williams presidents and was known as a veritable storehouse of information with his amazing memory. more »
March 17th, 1914 The cane contest is deemed so disorderly and raucous that the President and Dean abolish this Freshman-Sophomore rush. more »
November 11th, 1918 "[the armistice] was signed at 5 o'clock [am]. I wanted to go into town the night of the 11th, but was busy until after 10 o'clock translating for General Pershing the annexes to the armistice agreement". (James S. Alexander, jr Class of 1917, letter to his parents) more »
December 6th, 1918 Charles W. Whittlesey (Class of 1905) is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in an engagement against the Germans in the Argonne Forest. more »
October 1st, 1919 The World War I Victory Celebration is held at the college. more »
June 20th, 1920 Ephraim Williams Jr.'s remains, having been removed from his gravesite at Lake George, are reinterred at Williams College. more »
October 20th, 1920 The cornerstone of Stetson Library is laid.
May 7th, 1927 The Williams Record reports that work begun the previous September on a new highway over Petersburgh Mountain pass will "cut off some 13 miles" from the trek to Troy. more »
January 24th, 1935 The Steamship Mohawk disaster claims the lives of Prof. Herdman Cleland and three seniors bound to the Yucatan for a geological expedition. more »
March 2nd, 1935 The Williams Record reports that Latin will no longer be considered a requirement for admission to the college.
September 21st, 1935 The Williams Record reports that compulsory daily chapel attendance has been abolished.
March 13th, 1937 The Williams Forum announces "noted French lecturer and communist" Andre Malraux cancels speaking engagement at Williams for opportunity to interview President F.D. Roosevelt in Warm Springs, Ga.
February 21st, 1938 The college seismograph records a 14 second "earthquake" as the 75 foot brick chimney of the Greylock Hotel falls. more »
February 4th, 1940 The Shakespeare first folio is stolen from the Chapin Library by a man posing as a professor of English who presents a forged letter of introduction. The rare volume is retrieved by the FBI later in the year.
October 25th, 1945 The term ends and three seniors graduate. No Commencement exercises.
October 31st, 1945 End of V-12 program at Williams in which 1076 men were trained.
March 27th, 1949 Williams Glee Club broadcasts from Adams Memorial Theatre. more »
June 18th, 1950 Williams awards 328 B.A.s at the college's first outdoor commencement exercises held on the lawn behind Chapin Hall. more »
January 2nd, 1951 A fire reduces West College to a sagging shell. more »
September 29th, 1951 Gelett Burgess, author of "Purple Cow" verses, dies at age 85 in Carmel, CA. Editors of Wms. College humor magazine chose the "Purple Cow" for their publication title which started in October 1907. more »
September 27th, 1961 Hopkins Observatory is raised onto greased rails in anticipation of its move northwards to make room for the construction of Prospect. This is the second move the Observatory has made.
June 30th, 1962 The Angevine Committee report is released. The report will lead to the eventual demise of the fraternity system at Williams. more »
October 8th, 1967 Lady Bird Johnson speaks at Convocation and helps launch the Williams Center for Environmental Studies.
January 5th, 1968 The first Winter Study Program begins at Williams.
October 1968 A Trustee Statement abolishes fraternities at Williams. more »
April 5th, 1969 Members of the Afro-American Student Association take over Hopkins Hall to raise awareness of their demands to improve opportunities for African-American students.
May 4th, 1970 In opposition to the Vietnam War, Williams students vote to strike. more »
21st Century
October 22nd, 2000 Morton Owen Schapiro is inducted as the 16th President of Williams College. more »
November 10th, 2007 Williams hosts the 150th Saturday morning edition of "ESPN College GameDay" more »
July 7th, 2008 College Archives and Chapin Library begin to move their collections--over 13,900 boxes and crates--out of Stetson Hall in anticipation of the renovation of Stetson Hall and the construction of a new library.
