Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County and part of the Boston metropolitan area. Situated directly north of Boston, across the Charles River, it was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are in Cambridge, as was Radcliffe College, a college for women until it merged with Harvard on October 1, 1999. According to the 2010 Census, the city's population was 105,162; as of July 2014, it was the fifth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, Worcester and Lowell. Cambridge was one of two seats of Middlesex County until the county government was abolished in Massachusetts in 1997. In December 1630, the site of what would become Cambridge was chosen because it was safely upriver from Boston Harbor, making it defensible from attacks by enemy ships. Thomas Dudley, his daughter Anne Bradstreet, her husband Simon were among the town's first settlers.
The first houses were built in the spring of 1631. The settlement was referred to as "the newe towne". Official Massachusetts records show the name rendered as Newe Towne by 1632, as Newtowne by 1638. Located at the first convenient Charles River crossing west of Boston, Newe Towne was one of a number of towns founded by the 700 original Puritan colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony under Governor John Winthrop, its first preacher was Thomas Hooker, who led many of its original inhabitants west in 1636 to found Hartford and the Connecticut Colony. The original village site is now within Harvard Square; the marketplace where farmers sold crops from surrounding towns at the edge of a salt marsh remains within a small park at the corner of John F. Kennedy and Winthrop Streets; the town comprised a much larger area than the present city, with various outlying parts becoming independent towns over the years: Cambridge Village in 1688, Cambridge Farms in 1712 or 1713, Little or South Cambridge and Menotomy or West Cambridge in 1807.
In the late 19th century, various schemes for annexing Cambridge to Boston were pursued and rejected. In 1636, the Newe College was founded by the colony to train ministers. According to Cotton Mather, Newe Towne was chosen for the site of the college by the Great and General Court for its proximity to the popular and respected Puritan preacher Thomas Shepard. In May 1638, The settlement's name was changed to Cambridge in honor of the university in Cambridge, England. Newtowne's ministers and Shepard, the college's first president, major benefactor, the first schoolmaster Nathaniel Eaton were Cambridge alumni, as was the colony's governor John Winthrop. In 1629, Winthrop had led the signing of the founding document of the city of Boston, known as the Cambridge Agreement, after the university. In 1650, Governor Thomas Dudley signed the charter creating the corporation that still governs Harvard College. Cambridge grew as an agricultural village eight miles by road from Boston, the colony's capital.
By the American Revolution, most residents lived near the Common and Harvard College, with most of the town comprising farms and estates. Most inhabitants were descendants of the original Puritan colonists, but there was a small elite of Anglican "worthies" who were not involved in village life, made their livings from estates and trade, lived in mansions along "the Road to Watertown". Coming north from Virginia, George Washington took command of the volunteer American soldiers camped on Cambridge Common on July 3, 1775, now reckoned the birthplace of the U. S. Army. Most of the Tory estates were confiscated after the Revolution. On January 24, 1776, Henry Knox arrived with artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga, which enabled Washington to drive the British army out of Boston. Between 1790 and 1840, Cambridge grew with the construction of the West Boston Bridge in 1792 connecting Cambridge directly to Boston, so that it was no longer necessary to travel eight miles through the Boston Neck and Brookline to cross the Charles River.
A second bridge, the Canal Bridge, opened in 1809 alongside the new Middlesex Canal. The new bridges and roads made what were estates and marshland into prime industrial and residential districts. In the mid-19th century, Cambridge was the center of a literary revolution, it was home to some of the famous Fireside Poets—so called because their poems would be read aloud by families in front of their evening fires. The Fireside Poets—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes—were popular and influential in their day. Soon after, turnpikes were built: the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike, the Middlesex Turnpike, what are today's Cambridge and Harvard Streets connected various areas of Cambridge to the bridges. In addition, the town was connected to the Boston & Maine Railroad, leading to the development of Porter Square as well as the creation of neighboring Somerville from the rural parts of Charlestown. Cambridge was incorporated as a city in 1846 despite persistent tensions between East Cambridge and Old Cambridge stemming from differences in culture, sources of income, the national origins of the resident
Lakehurst, New Jersey
Lakehurst is a borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 2,654, reflecting an increase of 132 from the 2,522 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn declined by 556 from the 3,078 counted in the 1990 Census. Lakehurst was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 7, 1921, from portions of Manchester Township, based on the results of a referendum held on May 24, 1921; the borough is named for its location near woods. The community of Lakehurst first reached international fame as a winter resort around the turn of the 20th century, following the opening of the Pine Tree Inn in 1898. In 1911, the rope factory in the town burned down, prompting the formation of a volunteer fire department; the Hindenburg disaster, occurred on May 6, 1937, the German zeppelin Hindenburg arriving from Frankfurt am Main caught fire at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, located in Manchester Township. According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough had a total area of 1.008 square miles, including 0.915 square miles of land and 0.093 square miles of water.
The borough's lake, Lake Horicon, existed prior to 1942, as shown in aerial photographs from 1940 and 1931 and topographical maps from 1912. The cedar water lake remains stream-fed. Lakehurst is surrounded by Manchester Township, making it part of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality surrounds another; the climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Lakehurst has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps; as of the 2010 United States Census, there were 2,654 people, 881 households, 661.631 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,900.8 per square mile. There were 943 housing units at an average density of 1,030.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the borough was 77.24% White, 10.81% Black or African American, 0.64% Native American, 2.11% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 3.65% from other races, 5.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.07% of the population.
There were 881 households out of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.7% were married couples living together, 16.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 24.9% were non-families. 18.5% of all households were made up of individuals, 4.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.01 and the average family size was 3.43. In the borough, the population was spread out with 28.4% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 25.2% from 45 to 64, 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31.9 years. For every 100 females there were 105.4 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 97.8 males. The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that median household income was $67,872 and the median family income was $67,838. Males had a median income of $44,844 versus $34,950 for females; the per capita income for the borough was $27,171. About 2.1% of families and 3.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.0% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
As of the 2000 United States Census there were 870 households in the borough making up the total population of 2,522. The population density was 2,733.9 people per square mile. There were 961 housing units at an average density of 1,041.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the borough was 84.22% White, 7.85% African American, 0.63% Native American, 2.34% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 2.74% from other races, 2.14% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.97% of the population. There were 870 households out of which 41.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were married couples living together, 13.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 23.9% were non-families. 19.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.33. In the borough the population was spread out with 30.6% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, 8.0% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.3 males. The median income for a household in the borough was $43,567, the median income for a family was $48,833. Males had a median income of $35,403 versus $26,667 for females; the per capita income for the borough was $18,390. About 4.4% of families and 7.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.6% of those under age 18 and 2.5% of those age 65 or over. Lakehurst is governed under the Borough form of New Jersey municipal government; the governing body consists of a Mayor and a Borough Council comprising six council members, with all positions elected at-large on a partisan basis as part of the November general election. A Mayor is elected directly by the voters to a four-year term of office; the Borough Council consists of six members elected to serve three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two seats coming up for election each year in a three-year cycle.
The Borough form of government used by L
Jim Thorpe
James Francis Thorpe was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football, professional baseball, basketball, he lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were in place. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee restored his Olympic medals. Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma, attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, where he was a two-time All-American for the school's football team. After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union.
In 1913, Thorpe signed with the New York Giants, he played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships, he played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed of American Indians. From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association, which became the NFL in 1922, he played professional sports until age 41, the end of his sports career coinciding with the start of the Great Depression. He struggled working several odd jobs, he suffered from alcoholism, lived his last years in failing health and poverty. He was married three times and had eight children, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953. Thorpe has received various accolades for his athletic accomplishments; the Associated Press named him the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963.
A Pennsylvania town was named in his honor and a monument site there is the site of his remains, which were the subject of legal action. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the 1951 film Jim Thorpe – All-American. Information about Thorpe's birth and ethnic background varies widely, he was baptized "Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe" in the Catholic Church. Thorpe was born in Indian Territory of the United States, he was considered to have been born on May 22, 1887, near the town of Prague, Oklahoma. Thorpe himself said in a note to The Shawnee News-Star in 1943 that he was born May 28, 1888, "near and south of Bellemont – Pottawatomie County – along the banks of the North Fork River... hope this will clear up the inquiries as to my birthplace." However, most biographers believe that he was born on May 22, 1887, as, what is listed on his baptismal certificate. Bellemont was a small community, now disappeared, on the line between Pottawatomie and Lincoln Counties. Thorpe referred to Shawnee as his birthplace in the 1943 note.
Thorpe's parents were both of mixed-race ancestry. His father, Hiram Thorpe, had a Sac and Fox Indian mother, his mother, Charlotte Vieux, had a French father and a Potawatomi mother, a descendant of Chief Louis Vieux. He was raised as a Sac and Fox, his native name, Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "path lit by great flash of lightning" or, more "Bright Path"; as was the custom for Sac and Fox, he was named for something occurring around the time of his birth, in this case the light brightening the path to the cabin where he was born. Thorpe's parents were a faith which Thorpe observed throughout his adult life. Thorpe attended the Sac and Fox Indian Agency school in Stroud, with his twin brother, Charlie. Charlie helped him through school, he ran away from school several times. His father sent him to the Haskell Institute, an Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas, so that he would not run away again; when his mother died of childbirth complications two years he became depressed. After several arguments with his father, he left home to work on a horse ranch.
In 1904 the sixteen-year-old Thorpe returned to his father and decided to attend Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There his athletic ability was recognized and he was coached by Glenn Scobey "Pop" Warner, one of the most influential coaches of early American football history; that year he became orphaned after Hiram Thorpe died from gangrene poisoning after being wounded in a hunting accident, Jim again dropped out of school. He resumed farm work for a few years and returned to Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Thorpe began his athletic career at Carlisle in 1907 when he walked past the track and beat all the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in jump still in street clothes, his earliest recorded track and field results come from 1907. He competed in football, baseball and ballroom dancing, winning the 1912 intercollegiate ballroom dancing championship. Pop Warner was hesitant to allow Thorpe, his best track and field athlete, to compete in a physical game such as football.
Thorpe, convinced Warner to let him try some rushing plays in practice against the school
John Zander
John Adolf Fredrik Zander was a Swedish middle-distance runner who competed at the 1912 and 1920 Summer Olympics in the 1500 m and 3000 m events. In 1912 he finished tenth, respectively. Although his 3,000 m team placed second he did not receive a medal because only three best runners from a team were counted, while he was fourth; the 1916 Olympics were cancelled due to World War I. At the 1920 Games Zander failed to finish his 1500 m race, he helped Sweden to qualify for the final in the 3000 metre team race but he did not run in the final, in which Sweden won the bronze medal. Nationally Zander won 10 Swedish titles, in 1,500 m, steeplechase and 5,000 m, he won one mile race at the English AAA Championship. He semi-retired in 1918, had a rib injury while preparing for the 1920 Olympics. During his career he set Swedish records in the 1,500 and 5,000 m and world records over 1,500, 2,000 and 3,000 metres. In retirement he worked as an actuary for the Pension Board in Stockholm. Media related to John Zander at Wikimedia Commons
Sweden
Sweden the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre; the highest concentration is in the southern half of the country. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats and Swedes and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is forested. Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia; the climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence, that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers.
Today, the sovereign state of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state, like its neighbour Norway. The capital city is Stockholm, the most populous city in the country. Legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister. Sweden is a unitary state divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the Hanseatic League threatened Scandinavia's culture and languages; this led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years War on the Reformist side, an expansion of its territories began and the Swedish Empire was formed; this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since Sweden has been at peace, maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs; the union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars and the Cold War, albeit Sweden has since 2009 moved towards cooperation with NATO. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, but declined NATO membership, as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum, it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens, it has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks in numerous metrics of national performance, including quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality and human development.
The name Sweden was loaned from Dutch in the 17th century to refer to Sweden as an emerging great power. Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English used Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes"; this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige means "realm of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland. Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Faroese Svøríki, Icelandic Svíþjóð, the more notable exception of some Finnic languages where Ruotsi and Rootsi are used, names considered as referring to the people from the coastal areas of Roslagen, who were known as the Rus', through them etymologically related to the English name for Russia; the etymology of Swedes, thus Sweden, is not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own", referring to one's own Germanic tribe. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania.
This period was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers using flint technology. Sweden is first described in a written source in Germania by Tacitus in 98 AD. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC; as for literacy in Sweden itself, the runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the 2nd century AD, but all that has come down to the present from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions on artefacts of male names, demonstrating th
1500 metres
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983, it is equivalent to 1.5 kilometers or 15⁄16 miles. The demands of the race are similar to that of the 800 metres, but with a higher emphasis on aerobic endurance and a lower sprint speed requirement; the 1500 metre race is predominantly aerobic, but anaerobic conditioning is required. Each lap run during the world-record race run by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1998 in Rome, Italy averaged just under 55 seconds. 1,500 metres is three-quarter laps around a 400-metre track. During the 1970s and 1980s this race was dominated by British runners, along with an occasional Finn, American, or New Zealander, but through the 1990s a large number of African runners began to take over in being the masters of this race, with runners from Kenya and Algeria winning the Olympic gold medals. In the Modern Olympic Games, the men's 1,500-metre race has been contested from the beginning, at every Olympic Games since.
The first winner, in 1896, was Edwin Flack of Australia, who won the first gold medal in the 800-metre race. The women's 1,500-metre race was first added to the Summer Olympics in 1972, the winner of the first gold medal was Lyudmila Bragina of the Soviet Union. During the Olympic Games of 1972 through 2008, the women's 1,500-metre race has been won by three Soviets plus one Russian, one Italian, one Romanian, one Briton, one Kenyan, two Algerians; the 2012 Olympic results are still undecided as a result of multiple doping cases. The best women's times for the race were controversially set by Chinese runners, all set in the same race on just two dates 4 years apart at the Chinese National Games. At least one of those top Chinese athletes has admitted to being part of a doping program; the women's record was surpassed by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia in 2015. In American high schools, the mile run and the 1,600-metre run colloquially referred to as "metric mile", are more run than the 1,500-metre run, since US customary units are better-known in America.
Which distance is used depends on which state the high school is in, for convenience, national rankings are standardized by converting all 1,600-metre run times to their mile run equivalents. Many 1500 metres events at the championship level, turn into slow, strategic races, with the pace quickening and competitors jockeying for position in the final lap to settle the race in a final sprint; such is the difficulty of maintaining the pace throughout the duration of the event, most records are set in planned races led by pacemakers who sacrifice their opportunity to win by leading the early laps at a fast pace before dropping out. "The person who wins the race is behind watching" Correct as of September 2018. Below is a list of other times superior to 3:28.00: Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:26.12, 3:26.89, 3:27.21, 3:27.64, 3:27.65. Bernard Lagat ran 3:27.40, 3:27.91. Asbel Kiprop ran 3:27.72. Correct as of September 2018. Below is a list of other times superior to 3:55.50: Genzebe Dibaba ran 3:54.11, 3:55.17i.
Tatyana Kazankina ran 3:55.0. Lixin Lan ran 3:55.01. Yunxia Qu ran 3:55.38. Zhang Ling ran 3:55.47. The following athlete had their performance annulled due to a doping violation: Mariem Selsouli 3:56.15 A Known as the World Indoor Games "i" indicates performance on 200m indoor track 1,500 metres is an event in swimming and speed skating. The world records for the distance in swimming for men are 14:31.02 by Sun Yang, 14:08.06 by Gregorio Paltrinieri. The world records for the distance in speed skating are 1:41.04 by Shani Davis and 1:50.85 by Heather Richardson-Bergsma. IAAF list of 1500-metres records in XML Statistics
Columbia University
Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, it is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. It has been ranked by numerous major education publications as among the top ten universities in the world. Columbia was established as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton University in New Jersey, it was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the Revolutionary War and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. Columbia scientists and scholars have played an important role in the development of notable scientific fields and breakthroughs including: brain-computer interface.
The Columbia University Physics Department has been affiliated with 33 Nobel Prize winners as alumni, faculty or research staff, the third most of any American institution behind MIT and Harvard. In addition, 22 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology and Medicine have been affiliated with Columbia, the third most of any American institution; the university's research efforts include the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Goddard Institute for Space Studies and accelerator laboratories with major technology firms such as IBM. Columbia is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M. D. degree. The university administers the Pulitzer Prize annually. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including three undergraduate schools and numerous graduate schools, it maintains research centers outside of the United States known as Columbia Global Centers. In 2018, Columbia's undergraduate acceptance rate was 5.1%, making it one of the most selective colleges in the United States, the second most selective in the Ivy League after Harvard.
Columbia is ranked as the 3rd best university in the United States by U. S. News & World Report behind Princeton and Harvard. In athletics, the Lions field varsity teams in 29 sports as a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference; the university's endowment stood at $10.9 billion in 2018, among the largest of any academic institution. As of 2018, Columbia's alumni and affiliates include: five Founding Fathers of the United States — among them an author of the United States Constitution and co-author of the Declaration of Independence. S. presidents. Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704, at which time Colonel Lewis Morris wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary arm of the Church of England, persuading the society that New York City was an ideal community in which to establish a college. However, it was not until the founding of the College of New Jersey across the Hudson River in New Jersey that the City of New York considered founding a college.
In 1746, an act was passed by the general assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. In 1751, the assembly appointed a commission of ten New York residents, seven of whom were members of the Church of England, to direct the funds accrued by the state lottery towards the foundation of a college. Classes were held in July 1754 and were presided over by the college's first president, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Dr. Johnson was the only instructor of the college's first class, which consisted of a mere eight students. Instruction was held in a new schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church, located on what is now lower Broadway in Manhattan; the college was founded on October 31, 1754, as King's College by royal charter of King George II, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States. In 1763, Dr. Johnson was succeeded in the presidency by Myles Cooper, a graduate of The Queen's College, an ardent Tory. In the charged political climate of the American Revolution, his chief opponent in discussions at the college was an undergraduate of the class of 1777, Alexander Hamilton.
The American Revolutionary War broke out in 1776, was catastrophic for the operation of King's College, which suspended instruction for eight years beginning in 1776 with the arrival of the Continental Army. The suspension continued through the military occupation of New York City by British troops until their departure in 1783; the college's library was looted and its sole building requisitioned for use as a military hospital first by American and British forces. Loyalists were forced to abandon their King's College in New York, seized by the rebels and renamed Columbia College; the Loyalists, led by Bishop Charles Inglis fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, where the
John Zander
