This month in Harvard history

Feb. 29, 1672 – President Charles Chauncy dies in office.

Feb. 11, 1941 – President James Bryant Conant testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of H.R. 1776, the Lend-Lease Bill for transferring war supplies to World War II Allies.

February 1942 – A Liberal Union poll of 1,670 undergraduates probes wartime attitudes. Among the findings:

Seventy-eight percent believe that “we were right in going into this war, and we should concentrate all our energies on winning it.”

Fifty-two percent favor “maximum emphasis on a liberal arts program, while providing a limited amount of training in specific defense fields.”

About 25 percent favor emphasis on war courses; 13 percent are undecided.

Fifty-three percent favor postwar retention of national sovereignty; 33 percent favor an international federation with relinquishment of sovereignty; 3 percent favor withdrawing from postwar foreign involvements altogether.

Feb. 1, 1943 – By this date, 400 members of the senior class have gone off to war, and some 300 members of the Enlisted Reserve Corps have been called up. Eighty-five new freshmen enter. Overall College enrollment has dropped from about 3,500 to below 2,500 – a figure expected to drop steadily, week by week, as spring term proceeds.

With the addition of extra beds, the number of men quartered in University dormitories has risen from 4,500 to 6,500. The University’s 16 dining halls now feed about 6,000 men and have the capacity to feed even more on a military shift system if necessary.

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