1.
Minneapolis
–
Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County, and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2015, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul anchor the second-largest economic center in the Midwest, after Chicago. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul. It was once the worlds flour milling capital and a hub for timber, the city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing Americas fifth-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. As an integral link to the economy, Minneapolis is categorized as a global city. Noted for its music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub. The name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the citys first schoolteacher, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, Dakota Sioux had long been the regions sole residents when French explorers arrived around 1680. For a time relations were based on fur trading, gradually more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Dakota. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired this territory from France, fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the United States Army, and it attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town in 1856 on the Mississippis west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River, forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes. Due to the hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the citys thirty-four flour mills, a father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some acquired through industrial espionage from the Hungarians by William de la Barre, pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods. The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable, not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran that Minneapolis
2.
Minnesota
–
Minnesota is a state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11,1858, the state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan Land of 10,000 Lakes. Its official motto is LÉtoile du Nord, Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U. S. Minnesota is known for its progressive political orientation and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, in recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has broadened its historic demographic and cultural composition. Minnesotas standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneiska, Minneota, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U. S. region known as the Upper Midwest and it shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, with 86,943 square miles, or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has some of the Earths oldest rocks, gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean, the roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1, in more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago and these glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift, much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago and its bed created the fertile Red River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling. Minnesota is geologically quiet today, it experiences earthquakes infrequently, the states high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, which is only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesotas northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed, precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean
3.
University of Minnesota
–
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses are approximately 3 miles apart, and it is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the sixth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,147 students in 2013–14. The university is the institution of the University of Minnesota system, and is organized into 19 colleges and schools, with sister campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris. Minnesota is one of Americas Public Ivy universities, which refers to top universities in the United States capable of providing a collegiate experience comparable with the Ivy League. Founded in 1851, The University of Minnesota is categorized as an R1 Doctoral University with the highest research activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Minnesota faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 25 Nobel Prizes and three Pulitzer Prizes. Notable University of Minnesota alumni include two Vice Presidents of the United States, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, and Bob Dylan, who received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is also a member of the Association of American Universities which is an association of the 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada. In its 2017 edition, U. S. News & World Report ranked Minnesota 38th in their Best Global University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2015 ranks Minnesota 46th in the world. In 2015, Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the university 11th in the world for mathematics, the University of Minnesota is ranked 14 over-all among the nations top research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance. The U. S. News & World Reports 2016 rankings placed the program of the University as the 69th-best National University in the United States. Additionally, nineteen of the Universitys graduate-school departments have been ranked in the nations top-twenty by the U. S. National Research Council, in both 2008 and 2012 U. S. News & World Report ranked the College of Pharmacy 2nd in the nation. 2016 U. S. News & Report now rank the College of Pharmacy 2nd in the nation. In 2011, U. S. News & World Report ranked the School of Public Health 8th in the nation, the University of Minnesota ranked 19th in NIH funding in 2008. Minnesota is listed as a Public Ivy in 2001 Greenes Guides The Public Ivies, the university developed Gopher, a precursor to the World Wide Web which used hyperlinks to connect documents across computers on the internet. However, the produced by CERN was favored by the public since it was freely distributed. The University also houses the Charles Babbage Institute, a research, the department has strong roots in early days of supercomputing with Seymour Cray of Cray supercomputers. Notable faculty of the department are Yousef Saad, Vipin Kumar, Jaideep Srivastava, John Riedl, some notable alumni of the department are Ed Chi, Imrich Chlamtac, Leah Culver, Jeff Dean, Mark P. McCahill, Arvind Mithal, and Calvin Mooers. Puffed rice - Alexander P. Anderson led to the discovery of puffed rice, transistorized cardiac pacemaker - Earl Bakken founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957
4.
Artificial turf
–
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are played on grass. However, it is now being used on lawns and commercial applications as well. The main reason is maintenance—artificial turf stands up to use, such as in sports. Domed, covered, and partially covered stadiums may require artificial turf because of the difficulty of getting enough sunlight to stay healthy. But artificial turf does have its downside, limited life, periodic cleaning requirements, petroleum use, toxic chemicals from infill, artificial turf first gained substantial attention in the 1960s, when it was used in the newly constructed Astrodome. The specific product used was developed by Monsanto and called AstroTurf, AstroTurf remains a registered trademark, but is no longer owned by Monsanto. The first generation systems of the 1960s have been largely replaced by the second generation. That accomplishment led Sports Illustrated to declare Chaney as the man responsible for major league baseball. Artificial turf was first installed in 1964 on a school recreation area in Rhode Island. The material came to prominence in 1966, when AstroTurf was installed in the Astrodome in Houston. The use of AstroTurf and similar surfaces became widespread in the U. S. and Canada in the early 1970s, more than 11,000 artificial turf playing fields have been installed nationally. More than 1,200 were installed in the U. S. in 2013 alone, maintaining a grass playing surface indoors, while technically possible, is prohibitively expensive. Artificial turf was first used in Major League Baseball in the Houston Astrodome in 1966, for most of the 1965 season, the Astros played on green-painted dirt and dead grass. The solution was to install a new type of grass on the field, ChemGrass. Because the supply of AstroTurf was still low, only a limited amount was available for the first home game, there was not enough for the entire outfield, but there was enough to cover the traditional grass portion of the infield. The outfield remained painted dirt until after the All-Star Break, the team was sent on an extended road trip before the break, and on 19 July 1966, the installation of the outfield portion of AstroTurf was completed. The Chicago White Sox became the first team to install artificial turf in a stadium, as they used it in the infield
5.
Minnesota Golden Gophers football
–
The Minnesota Golden Gophers football program represents the University of Minnesota in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Founded in 1882, the program is one of the oldest in college football, Minnesota has been a member of the Big Ten Conference since its inception in 1896 as the Western Conference. The Golden Gophers claim seven national championships,1904,1934,1935,1936,1940,1941, since 2009, the Gophers have played all their home games at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In January 2017, the Gophers fired head coach Tracy Claeys, the Minnesota Golden Gophers college football team played its first game on September 29,1882, a 4–0 victory over Hamline University. Eight years later in 1890, the Gophers played host to Wisconsin in a 63–0 victory, with the exception of 1906, the Gophers and Badgers have played each other every year since then. The 124 games played against each other is the most played rivalry in Division I-A college football, students began gathering to play the game recreationally and its popularity grew. Once the sport had taken off, it was only a matter of time before a team was formed to play against other schools, early teams were very loosely organized, not requiring all of the players to be students and not having designated coaches. The players on the team started to recruit faculty members who had played football at schools in the East to help organize the team, some years, they played without a coach. Other years, they played with multiple coaches, in total, from 1882 through 1899, the team played 16 seasons of football and had 15 different coaches. As the years went by, the structure started to become more formal. In 1900, the hiring of Dr. Henry L. Williams, the Gophers enjoyed quite a bit of success in the early 20th century, posting winning records from 1900 to 1919. Head coach Henry L. Williams developed the Minnesota shift, a predecessor to later quick line shifts, also Henry L. Williams led Minnesota to one of the NCAAs longest unbeaten streaks of 35 games, from 1903 to 1905 with 34 wins and 1 tie. In 1932, Bernie Bierman became the Gopher head coach and led the Gophers to their first dynasty, from 1934 to 1936 the Gophers went on a run of winning three straight National Championships, the last Division I team to accomplish this feat. During the run, Minnesota went unbeaten in 28 straight games,21 of which were consecutive victories, the school record for consecutive victories is 24, which spanned 3 seasons from 1903 to 1905. The Gophers also won two national championships in 1940 and 1941. Those two seasons comprised most of an 18-game winning streak that stretched from 1939 to 1942, after some mediocre seasons throughout the remainder of the 1940s and 1950s, the Gophers rose back to prominence in 1960 with their seventh national championship. That national championship followed a 1-8 record in 1958 and 2-7 record in 1959, Minnesota played in bowl games the two following years as well, in 1961 and 1962. The Gophers earned their first berth in the Rose Bowl by winning the 1960 Big Ten title, the following year, Minnesota returned to Pasadena despite a second-place finish in the conference
6.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
College football
–
It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
8.
Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome
–
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was also the home of the Minnesota Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1984, on January 18,2014, the Metrodome roof was deflated, signaling the beginning of demolition work. The Vikings played at the University of Minnesotas TCF Bank Stadium for the 2014 and 2015 NFL seasons, the stadium had a fiberglass fabric roof that was self-supported by air pressure and was the third major sports facility to have this feature. The Metrodome was similar in design to the former RCA Dome, the Metrodome was reputedly the inspiration for the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The stadium was the facility to have hosted a Super Bowl, World Series, MLB All-Star Game. The Metrodome was the ninth-oldest stadium in the NFL, locally, the Metrodome had several nicknames such as The Dome, The Thunderdome, and The Homer Dome. The Metrodome was torn down in sections while construction of U. S, by the early 1970s, the Minnesota Vikings were unhappy with Metropolitan Stadiums relatively small capacity for football. Before the AFL-NFL merger, the NFL had declared that stadiums with a capacity smaller than 50,000 were not adequate for their needs. The biggest stadium in the area was the University of Minnesotas Memorial Stadium, supporters of a dome also believed that the Minnesota Twins would benefit from a climate-controlled stadium to insulate the team from harsh Minnesota weather later in the season. The Met would have likely needed to be replaced in any event, broken railings and seats could be seen in the upper deck by the early 1970s, and by its final season they had become a distinct safety hazard. Construction success of other domed stadiums, particularly the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, Downtown Minneapolis was beginning a revitalization program, and the return of professional sports from suburban Bloomington was seen as a major success story. A professional team hadnt been based in downtown Minneapolis since the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960, uncovering the Dome by Amy Klobuchar describes the 10-year effort to build the venue. The stadium was named in memory of former mayor of Minneapolis, U. S. Senator, vice President, Hubert Humphrey, who died in 1978. The Metrodome itself cost $68 million to build—significantly under budget—totaling around $124 million with infrastructure and it was a somewhat utilitarian facility, though not quite as spartan as Metropolitan Stadium. One stadium official once said all the Metrodome was designed to do was get fans in, let em see a game. The Metrodome is the venue to have hosted a MLB All-Star Game, a Super Bowl, an NCAA Final Four. The 1985 MLB All-Star Game, several games of the 1987 and the 1991 World Series, Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, the NCAA Final Four was held at the Metrodome in 1992 and 2001. The Metrodome also served as one of the four venues for the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship in 1986,1989,1996,2000,2003,2006
9.
TCF Bank Stadium
–
TCF Bank Stadium is an outdoor stadium located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The 50, 805-seat horseshoe style stadium cost $303.3 million to build and is designed to support future expansion to seat up to 80,000 and it is the first new Big Ten football stadium constructed since Memorial Stadium at Indiana University opened in 1960. TCF Bank Stadium also boasts the largest home locker room in college or professional football, the stadium is the third on-campus stadium and fourth stadium used for U of M football. Previous venues have been Northrop Field, Memorial Stadium, and Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the Gopher football program played its first game there on September 12,2009 against the Falcons of the United States Air Force Academy, prevailing 20-13. This was the first football game played on-campus since November 21,1981, the highest-ranked AP Top 25 team to visit was #2 TCU in 2015. Iowa is 1-3 against Minnesota in rivalry games played at The Bank, at the conclusion of the 2014 season, the Gopher football team has an all-time record of 23 -19 in games played at TCF Bank Stadium. The stadium is located on the northeast side of the Minneapolis campus, near the site of the former Memorial Stadium, the site was previously the Huron Boulevard Parking Complex, where the universitys four largest parking lots were located. The address is 2009 University Ave S. E, the stadium is part of a 75-acre expansion of the Twin Cities campus, the largest since the West Bank was built in the 1960s. Current plans for the call for the construction of as many as ten new academic buildings by 2015. The METRO Green Line light rail runs near the stadium, with a station in Stadium Village serving the facility, construction of the Green Line began in 2010 and opened June 14,2014. The two other major Twin Cities stadiums are located along this line, within a short distance, an environmental impact assessment of the stadium site was conducted by the university between December 2004 and March 2006 at a cost of $1.5 million. The results were approved by the Board of Regents on March 27,2006, the stadium is a horseshoe-style stadium which organizers said would have a traditional collegiate look and feel. On December 7,2006, the university announced that the field would be laid out in an unorthodox east-west configuration. This layout, similar to that of Memorial Stadium, provides a view of downtown Minneapolis, on September 18,2009, the University of Minnesota announced that the stadium was awarded LEED Silver Certification, the first college or professional football stadium to achieve LEED certification. The centerpiece of the stadium is the scoreboard, designed. At 48 by 108 feet, the HD-X light-emitting diode video scoreboard is currently the ninth largest in college football-only stadiums, and was the third largest at the time of construction. The playing surface is FieldTurf, an artificial turf. Located on the ground level is the Murray Warmath Locker Room
10.
World War I
–
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
11.
Purdue University
–
Purdue University is a public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana and is the main campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money to establish a college of science, technology, the first classes were held on September 16,1874, with six instructors and 39 students. The main campus in West Lafayette offers more than 200 majors for undergraduates, over 70 master’s and doctoral programs, in addition, Purdue has 18 intercollegiate sports teams and more than 900 student organizations. In 1865, the Indiana General Assembly voted to take advantage of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862, communities throughout the state offered their facilities and money to bid for the location of the new college. Popular proposals included the addition of a department at Indiana State University or at what is now Butler University. By 1869, Tippecanoe County’s offer included $150,000 from Lafayette business leader and philanthropist John Purdue, $50,000 from the county, and 100 acres of land from local residents. On May 6,1869, the General Assembly established the institution in Tippecanoe County as Purdue University, classes began at Purdue on September 16,1874, with six instructors and 39 students. Professor John S. Hougham was Purdue’s first faculty member and served as acting president between the administrations of presidents Shortridge and White, a campus of five buildings was completed by the end of 1874. Purdue issued its first degree, a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, in 1875, emerson E. White, the university’s president from 1876 to 1883, followed a strict interpretation of the Morrill Act. He intended not only to students for industrial work, but also to prepare them to be good citizens. Part of White’s plan to distinguish Purdue from classical universities included an attempt to ban fraternities. This ban was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court and led to White’s resignation. The next president, James H. Smart, is remembered for his call in 1894 to rebuild the original Heavilon Hall one brick higher after it had destroyed by a fire. Purdue’s engineering laboratories included testing facilities for a locomotive and a Corliss steam engine, one of the most efficient engines of the time. The School of Agriculture was sharing its research with farmers throughout the state with its cooperative extension services, programs in education and home economics were soon established, as well as a short-lived school of medicine. By 1925 Purdue had the largest undergraduate engineering enrollment in the country, President Edward C. Elliott oversaw a campus building program between the world wars. Inventor, alumnus, and trustee David E. Ross coordinated several fundraisers, donated lands to the university, ross’s gifts and fundraisers supported such projects as Ross–Ade Stadium, the Memorial Union, a civil engineering surveying camp, and Purdue University Airport. Purdue Airport was the country’s first university-owned airport and the site of the country’s first college-credit flight training courses, amelia Earhart joined the Purdue faculty in 1935 as a consultant for these flight courses and as a counselor on women’s careers
12.
Metropolitan Stadium
–
Metropolitan Stadium was a sports stadium that once stood in Bloomington, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Millers minor league team played at Met Stadium from 1956 to 1960. The Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Vikings then played at the Met from 1961 to 1981, the North American Soccer League soccer team Minnesota Kicks also played there from 1976 to 1981. The area where the stadium once stood is now the site of the Mall of America, after the rejection of numerous sites, a stadium committee appointed by Moore approved a 160-acre plot of farmland in Bloomington. The stadium would replace Nicollet Park as the home of the American Associations Minneapolis Millers, as the site in Bloomington was approximately equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, it was thought this would be the best location for a prospective Major League team. After a plan by architects Thorshov & Cerny won approval, groundbreaking was scheduled to begin on June 20,1955. The construction was almost delayed, however, when the owners of the property on which the stadium would be built on began a protest, one of these owners created a barricade of farm equipment along his property line that ran directly through where the stadiums infield would be. The dispute was settled in time for the groundbreaking to move forward as planned, many spectators and dignitaries attended the groundbreaking, including Minneapolis mayor Eric G. Hoyer and several members of the Minneapolis Millers. On February 7,1956, an accident occurred on the site when a portable heater used to cure concrete exploded in the stadiums basement. The Millers were then the top team of Stonehams New York Giants. Under major league rules of the time, the Giants owned the major league rights to the Minneapolis area, negotiations were also held with the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators. However, the Giants chose to follow the Brooklyn Dodgers to the west coast at the urging of Dodgers owner Walter OMalley, who owned the Millers crosstown rivals, the St. Paul Saints. San Francisco had long been home to the Pacific Coast Leagues San Francisco Seals, as part of the deal, the Millers parent team then became the Red Sox, who had no plans to move anywhere. The latter game brought 15,990 fans to the stadium, including Calvin Griffith, in October 1960, Calvin Griffith announced that his Washington Senators would move to Metropolitan Stadium and later became the Minnesota Twins. The Twins played their first home game on April 21,1961 with a loss to the new Washington Senators, the Millers and their perennial crosstown rival St. Paul Saints were then promptly folded by Major League Baseball. To ready the stadium for the Twins, a $9 million renovation increased the capacity from about 22,000 to over 30,000 by the completion of the Twins inaugural season. During the Twins first 10 seasons at the Met, they outdrew the average American League team each year, the National Football League was also interested in placing a team at the Met. Conversations were had with Violet Bidwill Wolfner, owner of the Chicago Cardinals, the Cardinals moved two of their regular season home games against the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants to Bloomington for the 1959 NFL season
