This week in KU History...

This Week In KU History

March 8, 1965: The KU Civil Rights Council holds a student sit-in in the office of Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe.
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March 9, 1927: H.H. Lane, chairman of the KU zoology department, complains that Snow Hall, then the third oldest building on campus, is in such a state of disrepair that "careless use of a hotplate or Bunsen burner could start a roaring blaze," while "rats galore bore parasites which constantly threatened an epidemic," and overall conditions "were probably responsible for the repeated illnesses of the faculty who worked there;"

March 11, 1886: Ferdinand Fuller, designer of the first building at KU and a member of the original party sent to Kansas by the Emigrant Aid Society of Massachusetts, dies at his home in Lawrence.
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March 12, 1890: KU Board of Regents elects Rev. Charles F. Thwing, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis, Minn., as chancellor, but he declines, paving the way for the appointment of KU Professor Francis Snow.

March 17, 1942: Chancellor Deane W. Malott recommends that KU accept Japanese-American college students being deported from the West Coast in the wake of Pearl Harbor, suggesting their presence would be "an interesting leaven in our group," and contending the whole deportation scheme would appear "utterly foolish" in the "light of later years."

March 18, 1960: Nearly 4,000 KU students pack Hoch Auditorium to protest the resignation of Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy following a long-simmering conflict with Kansas Gov. George Docking.
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March 19, 1889: Lewis Lindsay Dyche accepts a KU chair in anatomy, physiology and taxidermy.
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March 20, 1935: The worst "Dust Bowl" dust storm hits Lawrence, shrouding the town and the KU campus in darkness by 2 p.m.
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March 21, 1997: In one of the most painful losses KU basketball fans have endured, Arizona upsets the No. 1 ranked Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16.
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March 22, 1898: Fire destroys KU's engineering building and heating plant, prompting Kansas City businessman George A. Fowler to donate $21,000 to rebuild the facilities, which became known as the Fowler Shops.
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March 25, 1912: The campus power plant steam whistle, a KU tradition until January 2003, begins marking the end of each hour's classes.
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March 26, 1952: The men's basketball team wins its first NCAA national title.
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March 27, 1894: KU announces it will begin offering courses leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy.

March 27, 1920: Kappa Alpha Psi, one of the first African-American fraternities on campus, is established.

March 29, 1972: KU celebrates Carrie Watson Day, honoring the University's first and longest-serving professional librarian.
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March 30, 1925: First issue of an unofficial, purportedly "radical" student newspaper called The Dove, which would generally be printed on pink paper.
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Photos courtesy University Archives

Compiled by H.J. Fortunato
Department of History
University of Kansas

This Week In KU History is a project of the KU Memorial Unions.
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