This month in Harvard history

Oct. 6, 1642 – “The times and order of their Studies, unlesse experience shall shew cause to alter,” the earliest detailed Harvard curriculum, is preserved in writing. Harvard’s undergraduate course of study, begun as a three-year program in 1638, expands to four in 1652.

Oct. 7, 1783 – With high ceremony, Harvard Medical School officially opens as the “Medical Institution of Harvard University.” Its first home is the ever-versatile Holden Chapel.

Oct. 23, 1832 – Dane Hall, the Law School’s first new building, is formally dedicated in Harvard Yard and serves for more than half a century thereafter.

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