This month in Harvard history

• Jan. 9, 1961 – U.S. President-elect John F. Kennedy ’40 visits Cambridge for a meeting of the Board of Overseers, attracting a huge swarm of well-wishers and news media in the Yard.
• Jan. 14, 1963 – Harvard University Press celebrates 50 years of publishing, a milestone marked by the publication of a pamphlet on “The History of Harvard University Press” and the mounting of an extensive historical display in the lobby of Widener Library. The Press’s current catalog includes some 2,000 titles.
• Jan. 10, 1965 – The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) preaches during Sunday services at the Memorial Church.
• January 1967 – The Harvard mathematics team wins the intercollegiate title of the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, an all-day examination of 12 problems (mostly original). Top individual honors go to Marshall W. Buck ’69, who bested 1,525 competitors.
• Jan. 17-Feb. 25, 1968 – In collaboration with New York’s Asia House Gallery, the Fogg Museum displays “The Arts of Medieval Japan: The Heian Period,” an exhibition of about 60 works, largely from private U.S. collections.

– From the Harvard Historical Calendar, a database compiled by Marvin Hightower