Fall 2000
MIT a brief record
1861 Governor Andrew signs act chartering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and granting block of land in Back Bay, to include a ÒSociety of Arts, Museum of Arts, and School of Industrial ScienceÓ
1876 Alexander Graham Bell gives first demonstration of telephone to MIT's Society of Arts
1916 MIT moves campus from Back Bay to Cambridge site
1946 Research Laboratory of Electronics, peacetime sequel to Radiation Laboratory, established	SHASS 50 years
1949 Winston Churchill speaks at Mid-Century Convocation on social implications of scientific progress James R. Killian, Jr. inaugurated 10th president of MIT	1949 Committee on Educational Survey—the Lewis Committee—recommends establishing School of Humanities to replace Division of Humanities, founded in 1932
	1950 School of Humanities and Social Studies officially opens with John E. Burchard as dean and three departments—Economics and Social Science, English and History, and Modern Languages Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1951 Center for International Studies created (featured right, books connected with CIS) Photo (right): MIT Museum
1952 Sloan School of Management founded
	1954 Establishment of Department of Humanities, incorporating Department of English and History and related areas
1955 Dedication of Kresge Auditorium and Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen	1955 Launch of Course XXI, allowing students to major in humanities or social sciences combined with engineering (XXI-A) and science (XXI-B); 19 students enroll
1956 Julius A. Stratton, Class of 1923, becomes 11th president of MIT
	1957 Jacob Bronowski, Carnegie visiting professor of humanities Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1958 Roman Jakobson appointed Institute Professor Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1958 Doctoral program in Political Science established; 13 candidates admitted to inaugural class 1959 Name of school changed to School of Humanities and Social Science
	1960 Aldous Huxley arrives as Carnegie visiting professor of humanities Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1960 Doctoral program in Psychology created
1961 MIT Centennial celebrated by week-long gala; speakers include British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and author Aldous Huxley	1961 Doctoral program in Linguistics established; 7 candidates in inaugural class (Head of Department of Modern Languages William Locke) Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1963 Doctoral program in Philosophy inaugurated (Head of Philosophy section Huston Smith) Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1964 Robert L. Bishop appointed dean Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1964 Psychology section of Department of Economics becomes a department in its own right 1965 Department of Economics and Social Science (Course XIV) terminated. Economics and political science become departments (Course XIV and XVII respectively)
	1966 Paul A. Samuelson appointed Institute Professor Photo (right): MIT Museum
1966 Howard W. Johnson becomes 12th president of MIT	1966 American Council on Education study ranks Economics doctoral program first in the country for effectiveness 1966 Linguistics doctoral program rated first in the nation for quality of faculty
	1967 Eric J. Hobsbawm, visiting scholar Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1969 Lillian Hellman, visiting professor of humanities; visits again in 1975
	1970 Paul A. Samuelson awarded Nobel Prize in economics Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1970 Franco Modigliani appointed Institute Professor
1971 Jerome B. Wiesner inaugurated 13th president of MIT	1971 Philosophy section becomes a department
	1972 Nikki Giovanni, visiting writer Photo (right): Barron Claiborne
	1973 Harold J. Hanham appointed dean Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1973 Lewis Mumford, visiting scholar 1973 Launch of Cambridge Humanities Seminar series, a collaboration of Boston-Cambridge universities to diversify humanities curriculum
	1974 Friends of the Humanities, initiated by I. Austin Kelly III; I. Austin Kelly Prize offered annually to promote scholarly work in the humanities Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1974 Institute requirement in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) takes the place of freshman and sophomore core program
	1974 Leonard Bernstein appointed Institute lecturer Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1975 Visiting writers include E.L. Doctorow and Harold Bloom
	1976 Noam Chomsky appointed Institute Professor Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1976 Department of Philosophy combined with linguistics program to form Department of Linguistics and Philosophy (Course XXIV) 1976 Cross-registration and cross-teaching of languages with Wellesley College
	1977 Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology (CMRAE) established Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1977 Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) inaugurated
	1978 Defense and Arms Control Program at the Center for International Studies established; name changed to the Security Studies Program in 1996 Photo (right): Brian Fleske
1978 Worst blizzard of century closes Institute for a week	1978 Visiting writers include Bernard Malamud
	1979 Visiting writers include Toni Morrison (right) and Jorge Luis Borges Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
1980 Paul E. Gray ('54) becomes 14th president of MIT	1980 Writers Read at MIT series, including guest appearances by Russell Baker and Norman Mailer
	1981 Morris Halle appointed Institute Professor Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1981 Creation of MIT Japan Program, within Center for International Studies 1981 Writing Center, connected to Writing Program, offers individual instruction Institute-wide 1982 Six sections in Department of Humanities—Anthropology/ Archaeology, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Literature, Music, and Writing—become autonomous 1982 Economics and Linguistics doctoral programs rank first in nationwide survey conducted by Conference Board of Associated Research Councils
1983 Writing requirement instituted 1983 MIT announces Project Athena 1983 MIT establishes Media Laboratory	1983 Visiting writers include V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott (right). Photo: Chester Williams
	1984 Ann F. Friedlaender appointed dean Photo (right): MIT Museum
1984 29 percent of students admitted into the Class of 1988 are women	1984 Women's Studies Program launched 1984 Integrated Studies Program established
	1985 Franco Modigliani awarded Nobel Prize in economics Photo (right): MIT Museum 1985 Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar established at Center for International Studies
	1986 Visiting writers include Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer Photo (right): Jerry Bauer
	1986 Humanities Undergraduate Office renamed Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Office 1986 Creation of Burchard Scholars Program, recognizing MIT undergraduates with exceptional ability in the humanities, arts or social sciences
	1987 Robert M. Solow awarded Nobel Prize in economics Photo (right): MIT Museum
	1987 John Harbison receives Pulitzer Prize for Flight into Egypt 1987 HASS-D requirement and HASS-Minor option approved by MIT faculty
	1988 Noam Chomsky awarded Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1988 Music Section becomes Music and Theater Arts, incorporating activities of Dramashop, Shakespeare Ensemble and Dance Workshop 1988 Creation of PhD program in History and Social Study of Science and Technology, jointly offered by Anthropology, History and Science, Technology & Society
	1989 Ellen T. Harris appointed MIT's first Associate Provost for the Arts and Professor of Music Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1989 Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program created; replaces Bush Fellowship Program 1989 Faculty approves change in Course XXI degree designation from generic "humanities" to specific (e.g. "history")
1990 Charles M. Vest, provost of the University of Michigan, elected MIT's 15th president	1990 Language Learning and Resource Center established
	1991 Philip S. Khoury appointed dean Photo (right): Graham G. Ramsay
1991 The MacVicar Faculty Fellows Program established to recognize faculty who have made exemplary contributions to undergraduate teaching and education	1991 New “regional studies” approved for HASS-Minors—African and African Diaspora Studies, East Asian Studies, European Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and Russian Studies 1991 Kenan Sahin Lecture Series in History Faculty inaugurated
1993 Dibner Institute in the History of Science and Technology established	1993 Salman Rushdie speaks at MIT and is appointed honorary visiting lecturer in the humanities
	1994 “Black Women in the Academy: Defending Our Name, 1894–1994” Conference held at MIT. (Professor Evelynn Hammonds, Conference co-organizer) Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1994 Establishment of Washington Internship Program, within Department of Political Science 1994 International Science and Technology Initiative (MISTI), administered by Center for International Studies
	1995 Rosalind Williams of the Writing Program becomes Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1995 John Harbison appointed Institute Professor 1996 Paul A. Samuelson receives National Medal of Science 1996 Rosalind Denny Lewis Music Library dedicated
	1997 Peter A. Diamond appointed Institute Professor Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	1998 Paul L. Joskow receives Dean’s Award for Distinguished Service to the School of Humanities and Social Science Photo (right): Gerry Lupino
1999 Forty-eight percent of undergraduates admitted are women 1999 MIT launches $1.5 billion campaign	1999 John W. Dower wins the National Book Award for Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. In 2000, the book sweeps the awards, garnering the Pulitzer Prize, the Los Angeles Times’ Book Prize in History, the Bancroft Prize for American History and the American Historical Association’s John K. Fairbank Prize for East Asian History Photo (right): Graham G. Ramsay 1999 Comparative Media Studies Program, and SM in Comparative Media Studies, established
2000 Ground broken for the Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences	2000 Robert M. Solow awarded National Medal of Science Photo (right): Donna Coveney
	2000 The Bilingual/Bicultural Studies Center established
	2000 Institute Professor John Harbison’s opera, The Great Gatsby, premiers at the Metropolitan Opera Photo (right): Chris Lee
Fall 2000 Copyright © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology