The feature “On this day in Stanford history … ” details unusual or humorous events that occurred on the same date or week in past years from The Daily archives.

According to The Stanford Daily archives, on Sept. 28 in …

1900: A Stanford parent, Lieutenant Colonel Corbusier, gifted to the University a “large brass cannon.” The cannon had belonged to the Spanish military and was captured by the U.S. during the 1898 Battle of Manila during the Spanish-American War. It was determined that the cannon would be displayed in the Quad.

1910: Stanford offered a class in “Household Decoration.” Students in this class would learn “arrangement of rooms, stenciling dyeing [and] block-printing,” as well as “embroidery – the principles of stitching, color, etc., and their application to the ornamentation of the home and costumer.” Students would also learn “costume design – as applied to millinery and dressmaking.”

1918: Stanford fraternities decided to temporarily disband for the duration of World War I, as the University was planning to commission fraternity houses in order to house members of the military. During the meeting, held at the Kappa Alpha house, students discussed the possibility of finding a house on campus that could serve as an inter-fraternity house during the war.

1937: Stanford had a number of unspoken rules and traditions that freshmen had to learn and follow to the letter. For instance, it was “considered in bad taste to smoke on the Quad at any time, but students congregate on the steps of the English corner during the brief period between classes for a cigarette and exchange of conversation.” Freshmen were also banned from the Law School steps and from wearing “cords.” And if men brought women back to their dorms after curfew, they had to buy their dates a pound of candy for every minute they were late.

1939: The Daily ran a poll in order to gauge the attitudes of students towards the possibility of the U.S. going to war with Germany. The questions asked included: “Are you in favor of Congress’ repealing the present arms embargo and substituting the proposed ‘cash and carry’ neutrality?” and “If the United States enters the European war: a) would you volunteer? b) would you wait to be drafted? c) would you refuse to go, even at the risk of imprisonment?”

1956: Students were engaged in a heated controversy over the price of coffee on campus after the Cellar, a restaurant on campus, announced that it planned to raise the price of a cup of coffee from five cents (its rate at the time). Students held a rally in protest and threatened to picket the Cellar. “We ask everyone to respect our picket line, and we know we’ll win,” one student said.

1961: In the middle of a drought, Stanford students had followed regulations on water rationing too closely, and their low water usage resulted in damage to the water pressure. In response, the University administration instructed students to abandon the strict schedule that had been in place since the previous April and, instead, to feel free to “water at will.” The Daily also noted that the previous spring quarter had been the first in Stanford’s history during which Lake Lagunita did not fill up from rainfall.

1979: The Faculty Senate debated whether children of faculty members should be given special consideration in the admissions process. An annual report issued by the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid “put status as faculty offspring in the same category as ethnicity,” according to a Daily article, allowing that factor to be the deciding one between two candidates who were otherwise equal. Several faculty members expressed the belief that without such a policy, it would be more difficult to recruit faculty to Stanford. Ultimately, the Faculty Senate did not make a decision on what the policy should be and instead left it up to the Admissions Office.

Contact Sarah Wishingrad at [email protected].