The feature “On this day in Stanford’s history” details events that occurred on the same date in past years at Stanford.
According to The Stanford Daily’s archives, on May 8 in …
1894: Residents of Encina and Roble Hall were notified that they would be charged $2.00 a month next semester for the “privilege” of using the kitchen and dining room.
1901: The Daily announced that U.S. President William McKinley — who was to be assassinated only months later — would address Stanford students and faculty in Assembly Hall next week.
1930: Stanford’s sports director Harry Maloney offered the American Olympic Committee the use of the Stanford Stadium for the 1932 Summer Olympics tryouts. The stadium ultimately ended up holding the U.S. Olympic Trials for men’s track and field on July 15 and 16 in 1932.
1939: The front page of The Daily featured a picture of Adolf Hitler under the headline “And the Knot Is Really Tied Now,” referring to the emerging military alliance between Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy, which would later become known as the “Pact of Steel.”
1950: The Daily profiled international students studying at Stanford under the University’s year-long Foreign Scholarship Program, which was established to introduce incoming students to American culture and foster mutual understanding between them and Stanford students. Program participants hailed from countries across Europe, including Russia, Norway and Germany.
1967: Delivering a lecture in Memorial Auditorium, the 17th president of Yale defended the academic freedom of faculty while attacking student interference in academic matters such as course designs and tenure decisions as “wholly destructive.” Philip Taubman ’70, the article’s author, former editor-in-chief of The Daily and current consulting professor at Stanford, reported a “sparse” audience.
1989: The Haas Center for Public Service, formerly known as the Public Service Center, adopted its new name in honor of the Haas family after it donated $6.2 million to Stanford’s endowment.
1998: Trivia fan Mari Webel ’00 represented Stanford at the “Jeopardy!” College Championship. Webel stuffed her head full of facts about “American presidents and foods that begin with Q.” Little did she know, current sophomore Josie Bianchi ’20 would walk in her footsteps twenty years later and compete in the same game show.
2009: According to the weekly police blotter, a student was cited and released at Theta Delta Chi for urinating in public, allegedly “attempting to put out Stanford fires.” California experienced a series of wildfires that year.
Contact Yasmin Samrai at ysamrai ‘at’ stanford.edu.