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History
Yale traces its beginnings to "An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School" passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut and dated October 9, 1701, which was furthered by a meeting in Branford, Connecticut by a group of ten Congregationalist ministers who pooled their books to form the school's first library. The school itself opened in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, but moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1716, where it remains to this day.
The college's original name was the Collegiate School; it was renamed Yale after an early benefactor, Elihu Yale. In the early 20th century, Yale merged with the Sheffield Scientific School.
Schools and libraries
In addition to a respected undergraduate college, Yale is noted for its law school, medical school, and school of music. The Divinity School was founded in the early 19th century by Congregationalists who felt that the Harvard University divinity school had become too liberal.
Yale's library system is among the largest in North America. The main library, Sterling Memorial Library, contains about 4 million volumes. The Beinecke Rare Book Library is housed in a marble building designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Its courtyard sculptures are by Isamu Noguchi.
Other resources include the Peabody Museum of Natural History and a museum of British art.
Yale's sports teams are called the Bulldogs. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-AA in football).
Heads of Collegiate School, Yale College, and Yale University
Rectors of Yale College (birth-death) (years as rector)
1 Rev. Abraham Pierson (1641-1707) (1701-1707) Collegiate School
2 Rev. Samuel Andrew ( - ) (1707-1719) (pro tempore)
3 Rev. Timothy Cutler ( - ) (1719-1726) 1718/9: renamed Yale College
4 Rev. Elisha William (1694-1755) (1726-1739)
5 Rev. Thomas Clap (1703-1767) (1740-1745)
Presidents of Yale College (birth-death) (years as president)
1 Rev. Thomas Clap (1703-1767) (1745-1766)
2 Rev. Naphtali Daggett (1727-1780) (1766-1777) (pro tempore)
3 Rev. Ezra Stiles (1727-1795) (1778-1795)
4 Timothy Dwight IV (1752-1817) (1795-1817)
5 Jeremiah Day (1773-1867) (1817-1846)
6 Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1899) (1846-1871)
7 Noah Porter III (1811-1892) (1871-1886)
8 Timothy Dwight V (1828-1916) (1886-1899) 1887: renamed Yale University
9 Arthur Twining Hadley (1856-1930) (1899-1921)
10 James Rowland Angell (1869-1949) (1921-1937)
11 Charles Seymour (1885-1963) (1937-1951)
12 Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906-1963) (1951-1963)
13 Kingman Brewster, Jr (1919-1988) (1963-1977)
14 Hanna Holborn Gray (1930- ) (1977-1977) (acting)
15 A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938-1989) (1977-1986)
16 Benno C. Schmidt, Jr ( - ) (1986-1992)
17 Howard R. Lamar ( - ) (1992-1993)
18 Richard C. Levin ( - ) (1993- )
Residential colleges
Yale has a system of twelve residential colleges, instituted in 1930. The system is loosely modelled after the system found in British universities. However, students are accepted by the university as a whole, and assigned to residential colleges at random. These colleges are social rather than academic units, unlike the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge:
Nobel laureates
Technology & Innovation
Founders, Entrepreneurs, & CEO's
Academics
Law & Politics
History, Literature, Art & Music
Movies
Television
Fictional
(* attended, but did not graduate from Yale)Famous On-Campus Tragedies
Yale's high public profile led to three on-campus bombings. On May 1, 1970, an explosive device was detonated in the Ingalls Rink during events related to the trial of Black Panther Bobby Seale. On June 24, 1993, computer science professor David Gelernter was injured in his office on Hillhouse Avenue by a bomb sent by serial killer and Harvard graduate Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. On May 21, 2003, an explosive device went off at Yale University's Sterling Law School, damaging two classrooms.