Campus History

In 1853 and 1862, Congress gave states public lands to be used to fund higher education. California received 196,000 acres. The state constitution — drafted in 1849, the year before the state was admitted to the Union — called for establishing a state university "that would contribute even more than California's gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations."

In 1866, the state legislature established an Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College. Oakland's private College of California expressed interest in forming a "complete" university and offered a site. In 1867, the two colleges agreed to merge, and that was the birth of the University of California.

The prior year, trustees of the College of California had met on property they had purchased for a future campus. There they dedicated the site to the cause of learning and recalled a poem with the line "Westward the course of empire takes its way." They named the site "Berkeley" after the poem's author, Bishop George Berkeley, Irish philosopher and patron of American colleges.

Timeline of campus milestones

1867
College of California donates its physical plant to the state.

1868
The University of California is chartered in the Organic Act as a "complete university" in the liberal arts and practical arts.

1869
University opens in Oakland with 10 faculty and 40 students.

1870
Henry Durant, Congregational minister and Yale alumnus, elected first president.

1873
Classes begin at Berkeley site for 199 students.

1882
Rugby is established as Cal's first sports team.

1887 Associated Students of the University of California is formed.

1892
The first "Big Game" is played between California and Stanford; the Farm wins 14–10.

1896
Hearst Memorial Mining Building is financed by Phoebe Apperson Hearst. She later becomes the first woman UC Regent.

1899
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, from Cornell, becomes president.

1901
John Galen Howard begins executing UC Berkeley's architectural plan. His legacy includes Sather Gate, Sather Tower (the Campanile), Hearst Greek Theatre, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, and Memorial Stadium.

1905
Hubert Howe Bancroft's collection of western Americana and Spanish-American historical materials is added to the University's collection.

1914
Jane K. Sather Tower — the Campanile — is completed.

1919
University establishes "Southern Branch" in Los Angeles.

1923
California Memorial Stadium is built following statewide fundraising drive.
Fire destroys a third of the city of Berkeley, but campus is spared.

1933
University budget is cut by one-third in wake of the Depression, resulting in program and salary cuts.

1939
Professor Ernest O. Lawrence is awarded Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the atom-smashing cyclotron.

1941
Plutonium is discovered by Professors Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan and two colleagues in Gilman Hall.

"Oski," the Cal mascot, makes first appearance at freshman rally.

1943
UC officially takes over operation of government laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and continues work of Berkeley faculty and others in developing the atomic bomb. The laboratory is directed by physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer.

1945
Berkeley completes $57 million worth of government-sponsored World War II work, setting stage for Cal's transformation into major research university.

1946
Returning GIs double Berkeley enrollment to more than 25,000, severely straining facilities.

1948
Pappy Waldorf era begins — he coaches the football team to the first of three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances.

1949
Mark Twain's daughter gives author's voluminous papers to the university.

Regents impose loyalty oath over strenuous objections of faculty; the following year, 31 faculty are dismissed for refusing to sign oath, an action eventually overturned by the state Supreme Court.

1951
Professors Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan share the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1952
Clark Kerr becomes first chancellor of Berkeley campus.

1954
Virus Laboratory first crystallizes virus for polio.

1957
Baseball team wins second NCAA championship.

1958
Clark Kerr becomes president of the University of California; Glenn T. Seaborg becomes chancellor at Berkeley.

1959
Men's basketball team wins NCAA championship under Coach Pete Newell.

1960
The California Legislature approves the Master Plan for Higher Education, spearheaded by Clark Kerr.

1962
President John F. Kennedy addresses 90,000 people in Memorial Stadium on Charter Day, to that date, the largest audience to hear Kennedy in person.

1964
Students demonstrate against rules that prohibit certain political activities on campus, launching Free Speech Movement; rules are later revised.

1966
American Council on Education names Berkeley the "best-balanced distinguished university in the country." Harvard is second.

1968
Lawrence Hall of Science opens in honor of Nobel laureate Ernest O. Lawrence.

1969
Department of Ethnic Studies is established after student strike.

People's Park controversy erupts.

1973
Enrollment in fall quarter exceeds 30,000 for the first time.

1980
Poet Czeslaw Milosz receives the Nobel Prize in Literature, Berkeley's first outside the sciences.

1981
Berkeley is rated the strongest graduate institution across the board in a national study by four academic organizations.

1982
Cal beats Stanford 25-20 with "The Play," a five-lateral kickoff return for a touchdown as time runs out.

1986
Clark Kerr Campus student housing complex opens in honor of the UC president emeritus.

1990
Chang-Lin Tien becomes chancellor.

The Keeping the Promise campaign raises $469 million, the most ever raised by a public university.

1992
Football team wins Citrus Bowl, beating Clemson 37–13; finishes 1991 season among nation's Top 10.

1995
Berkeley graduate programs are ranked top in the nation for third consecutive decade by National Research Council.

1997
Robert M. Berdahl becomes chancellor.

1998
Campus enlists 3,000th Peace Corps volunteer; more volunteers produced by Berkeley than any other university.

1999
Anonymous donor gives $50 million to Berkeley for health sciences, largest gift ever to any UC campus.

2000
Daniel McFadden wins Nobel Prize in Economics.

Campaign for the New Century concludes, having raised $1.44 billion to strengthen Cal's academic excellence.

2001
George Akerlof wins Nobel Prize in Economics, becoming the 18th Berkeley faculty member to win a Nobel.

2002
Softball team wins NCAA title, the first for Cal in any women's sport.

2003
Cal beats Virginia Tech 52–49 to win the Insight Bowl.

2004
Campus dedicates site for new Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies.

Robert J. Birgeneau becomes Berkeley's ninth chancellor.