WILLIAM AND MARY 300 YEAR OF HIGHLIGHTS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302140201
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
WILLIAM AND MARY 300 YEAR OF HIGHLIGHTS
WILLIAM AND MARY 300 YEARS OF HIGHLIGHTS Nov. 18, 1618 - The Virginia Company of London gives 10,000 acres for a university to be built at Henrico, about 12 miles south of present-day Richmond.
1622 - Native American uprising devastates the British colony. Plans for the university are abandoned.
May 1691 - The Rev. James Blair is sent from Virginia to London by the colonial General Assembly to seek royal approval for a college.
Feb. 8, 1693 - Charter Day: King William III and Queen Mary II grant a charter to establish the school.
1699 - Williamsburg becomes Colonial capital.
August 1695 - Foundation laid for main college building, known as The College. It is the Christopher Wren Building, still the landmark building on the campus. 1697 - Classes begin.
Summer 1749 - George Washington receives a surveyor's commission from the college. Washington never studied at William and Mary, but was its first American chancellor. He served in the honorary post from 1788 to 1799.
1760-1762 - Thomas Jefferson attends the college. Afterwards, he frequently visits to study law under George Wythe, later the first law professor at the college.
1774-1776 - James Monroe studies at the college. His education, like that of many students, is interrupted by the American Revolution.
Dec. 5, 1776 - Phi Beta Kappa, the first American intercollegiate Greek letter fraternity, is founded by students at the college.
Dec. 4, 1779 - First-of-its-kind student-supervised honor system installed.
Spring 1780 - John Marshall, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1802 to 1835, briefly studies law under Wythe.
January 1781 - Class suspended when British Army invades Virginia.
1782 - University becomes a hospital for wounded French soldiers.
1806 - John Tyler studies at the college.
1861 - College President Ben S. Ewell, many professors and most students join the Confederate Army. During the Civil War, The College Building is used as a barracks and later as a Union hospital, when it was burned.
Nov. 11, 1893 - College fields its first football team, losing to the Norfolk YMCA 16-0.
March 5, 1906 - By act of the General Assembly, the college becomes a state school.
March 15, 1918 - William and Mary becomes Virginia's first co-ed state college.
1957 - Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall opens as the first building on the college's new campus.
May 1967 - With the granting of the first doctorate, William and Mary achieves modern university status.
October 1976 - President Gerald Ford and Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter have their third campaign debate in Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall.
February 1987 - Warren E. Burger, retired chief justice of the Supreme Court, becomes 20th chancellor of William and Mary.
Feb. 8, 1993 - The College of William and Mary celebrates its 300th Anniversary.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB