This month in Harvard history

April 17, 1953 – West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer visits Harvard.

April 1954 – Inspired by the success of a 1953 loan exhibition of French drawings, the Fogg Museum presents the largest public showing of 16th- and 17th-century Dutch and Flemish watercolors, prints, and drawings ever mounted in the U.S. Included are 67 choice works from the Collection de Grez held by Belgium’s Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, and 152 works from the Fogg (including 61 Rembrandt etchings) and local collections.

April 9, 1956 – The Senate Subcommittee on Disarmament convenes a special session in the Law School’s Ames Courtroom (Austin Hall). Presiding are Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey and Rhode Island’s John O. Pastore.

April-October 1958 – The International Science Exhibit of the Brussels World Fair includes an apparatus built at the Division of Engineering and Applied Physics: an “icebox” that uses supercooled water to grow giant, branching snowflake crystals in five minutes. The process mimics crystal formation in cast metals, making the device useful for metallurgical research.

April 1965 – For the first time, Harvard’s endowment exceeds the $1 billion mark, thereby realizing a long-held goal of Treasurer Paul C. Cabot.

April 23, 1966 – At her own insistence, Natalie Wood – dubbed “Worst Actress of the Year” by “The Harvard Lampoon” – comes to Cambridge to pick up her dubious distinction before a throng of enthusiastic onlookers.

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