Campus & Community
This month in Harvard history
- Feb 5., 1954 – At the winter meeting of the Massachusetts Bar Association in Springfield, Law School Dean Erwin Griswold discusses the soundness and landmark significance of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which has lately gained much attention during congressional investigations of domestic Communist activity. The talk is broadcast over New England commercial radio stations and rebroadcast over WGBH-FM.
- Feb. 5, 1954 – From his New York studios, Edward R. Murrow interviews President Nathan Marsh Pusey and his family in the living room of 17 Quincy St. (then the president’s house; now Loeb House) for the second segment of his “Person to Person” television show, viewed on 44 stations nationwide. Ironically, Boston’s WNAC-TV does not carry the program, which is not part of its regular fare.
- Feb. 21, 1958 – Before an overflow crowd in Emerson Hall D, Arkansas Gazette Editor and former Nieman Fellow Harry S. Ashmore gives the first of three lectures marking the 20th anniversary of Harvard’s Nieman Fellowships for journalists. His topic – “When the Editor’s Chair is Hot” – focuses on the recent integration of Little Rock’s Central High School.
- February 1963 – Randall Hall (1899), home of the University Printing Office since 1916, falls to the wrecker’s ball to make way for William James Hall.
- Ca. February 1963 – In the latest of a long series of skirmishes with Harvard, Cambridge City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci proposes that the Lampoon Castle be converted into a public restroom. – From the Harvard Historical Calendar, a database compiled by Marvin Hightower