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 Nov. 10 in …
1894: Sigma Nu allowed Justice of the Peace Gilbert W. Wigle to entertain political friends in its house. A “very large” crowd came. After the politicians discussed a talk they had attended earlier in the evening by a law professor, the house was opened up to guests and “songs were sung and dancing was enjoyed.”
1897: An article lamented the fact that graduation took so many great musicians away from campus and pled for any freshman artists to join the Ladies’ Mandolin Club, which was tragically affected by such vacancies. The recruits were welcome to attend club meetings “whether or not they are personally known to any of the present members of the club.”
1898: The annual Princeton Cane Spree took place — an event in which sophomores wrestled canes from freshmen who tauntingly carry walking sticks, as was the fashion for gentlemen of the time.
1954: Frosh began collecting wood for the Big Game bonfire, with each wing of Encina Hall scheduled for either an afternoon of wood collecting or a 12-hour shift of guarding the said wood, which had to be watched around the clock.
1960: The Daily Cal went from a daily publication to a weekly publication due to financial problems.
1970: The Stanford Police Chief spelled out University’s general policy regarding marijuana violations, saying that police did not make a point of looking for pot or rounding up drug offenders.
1990: A new Tree was announced and interviewed. The Tree described himself as a “balding junior majoring in philosophy who copes with pressure of always being funny” and continued on to discuss his journey to Stanford, saying, “I guess I was first planted in a small little town called Cinnaminson, NJ, and then I was uprooted out to California.” He also described plans to renovate the Tree costume by adding a refrigerator and cable TV.
1997: The Daily announced the end of an era as Stanford chose PCs over Mac computers as its standard.
2004: Peter Trinca, a manager of the Pulse Copy Center in Tresidder Union, was arrested on charges of grand theft. He used dubious billing methods to defraud the University of approximately $1.5 million between 2000 and 2003.
Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu