This Week in KU History
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Wednesday, July 15, 1874
KU Board of Regents elects Professor S.H. Carpenter of the University of Wisconsin as chancellor, but after Carpenter endures Lawrence’s 100-degree heat and swarms of invading grasshoppers, he departs for Madison and declines the job.
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Wednesday, July 15, 1987
The top 170 feet of the 265-foot-tall smokestack was removed today. The smokestack has been on campus since 1921. -
Saturday, July 16, 1921
Construction begins on Kansas Memorial Stadium. Erected as a memorial to the KU casualties during World War I, only the east and west sides of the stadium were built. The north bowl was added in 1927. -
Monday, July 16, 1951
In an article about the departure of KU Chancellor Deane W. Malott and his replacement by KU Med Center Dean Franklin D. Murphy, Time magazine asserts “In the last twelve years, KU has begun to climb from its place as a solid but unspectacular state university…Under Chancellor Murphy, it hopes to climb even faster.”
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Thursday, July 16, 1970
Former KU student Rick “Tiger” Dowdell, 19, is shot and killed by police in downtown Lawrence, sparking a week of protests, vandalism, and confrontations.
