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This
Week In KU History
April 2, 1890: Eight KU professors establish the University’s chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honor society, the first west of the Mississippi and the 31st nationwide. Read the full story.

April 2, 1946: Danforth Chapel is officially dedicated.
Read the full story.

April 4, 1988: Danny Manning leads the Jayhawk basketball team to its first NCAA championship in 36 years. Read the full story.

April 8, 1970: Hippie activist Abbie Hoffman speaks at KU’s Allen Field House. Read the full story.

April 11, 1890: The Board of Regents elects natural science professor Francis Huntington Snow the University’s fifth chancellor. Read the full story.
April 12, 1935: In a demonstration of 1930s-era pacifism, 700 KU students gather in front of Fowler for a Student Strike Against War Committee protest gathering, a nationwide event that takes place on campuses across the country. Read the full story.
April 15, 1948: The KU chapter of the Committee on Racial Equality (CORE) stages a sit-in at Brick’s Café in an attempt to force the owner to serve African-Americans. Read the full story.

April 19, 1910: Electric trolleys from the Lawrence city system initiate 23 years of streetcar service to the KU campus.
Read the full story.
April 20, 1940: Glenn Cunningham, arguably KU’s greatest track star, competes in his final race at the Kansas Relays.
Read the full story.

April 20, 1970: An unidentified arsonist sets fire to the Kansas Union by exploding what was apparently an incendiary device in a sixth floor women’s rest room, causing an estimated $1 million in damages. Read the full story.
April 21, 1923: First running of the Kansas Relays takes place at Memorial Stadium. Read the full story.

April 21, 1984: The University of Kansas inducts Olympic gold medallist Billy Mills into its Athletics Hall of Fame. Read the full story.
April 23, 1966: KU freshman track star Jim Ryun knocks nearly eight seconds off the Kansas Relays record for the mile run in a race that launches perhaps the greatest three-month stretch of his remarkable career. Read the full story.
April 25, 1908: The editor of the Lawrence Journal allows KU journalism students to assume charge of the day’s newspaper, resulting in a scoop about the liquor trade in supposedly dry Lawrence. Read the full story.
April 27, 1973: In the first of two stunts that would enter into campus legend, KU art student Dan Wessell, who preferred to be known as Lorenzo Wesselini: The Human Cannonball, attempts to fly his homemade glider over Memorial Stadium by rolling down the 32-foot ramp north of the Campanile. Read the full story.
Compiled by H.J. Fortunato
University of Kansas
This Week In KU History is a project of the KU Memorial Unions.
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Copyright 2005 © University of Kansas Memorial Corporation
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