art of Wisconsin's Magna Carta"[31] 1898 UW music instructors Henry Dyke Sleeper and Conner Ross Buerosse wrote Varsity, the university’s alma mater[31] 1904–1905 UW Graduate S

Notable historical moments in the first 150 years of the University of Wisconsin–Madison include:
1863 Women students first admitted to University of Wisconsin during the American Civil War,[28][29][30]
1866 State legislature designated the University as the Wisconsin land-grant institution
April 4, 1892 The first edition of the student-run The Daily Cardinal was published
1894 State Board of Regents rejected an effort to purge Professor Richard T. Ely for supporting striking printers, issuing the famous "sifting and winnowing" manifesto in defense of academic freedom, later described as "part of Wisconsin's Magna Carta"[31]
1898 UW music instructors Henry Dyke Sleeper and Conner Ross Buerosse wrote Varsity, the university’s alma mater[31]
1904–1905 UW Graduate School established
1905 the University awards the first PhD in chemical engineering ever granted, to Oliver Patterson Watts.
1907 Wisconsin Union was founded
1909 William Purdy and Paul Beck wrote On, Wisconsin the UW–Madison athletic fight song
1907–1911 The "Single-grain experiment" was conducted by Stephen Moulton Babcock and Edwin B. Hart, paving the way for modern nutrition as a science
1913 Vitamin A discovered by UW scientist, Elmer V. McCollum
1916 Vitamin B discovered by McCollum
1919 Radio station 9XM founded on campus (Now WHA (970 AM), it is the oldest continually operating radio station in the United States)
1923 Harry Steenbock invented process for adding vitamin D to milk
1925 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation chartered to control patenting and patent income on UW–Madison inventions
1934 The University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, whose mission was to restore lost landscapes, such as prairies, was opened
1936 UW–Madison began an artist-in-residence program, the first ever at a university
1940–1951 Warfarin (Coumadin) developed at UW. Named after Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
1969 The Badger Herald was founded as a conservative student paper
1970 Sterling Hall bombing
1984 University Research Park founded to encourage technology transfer between university and businesses
1988 The Onion founded by two UW–Madison students, Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson
1998 UW–Madison's James Thomson (cell biologist) first isolated and cultured human embryonic stem cells
2011 Wisconsin defeats Michigan State to win the first

ll bombing Bascom Hill, 1968,

 a law merging the University of Wisconsin with the nine universities and four freshman-sophomore branch campuses of the Wisconsin State Universities System, creating the University of Wisconsin System and bringing the two higher education systems under a single board of regents.
Student activism[edit]
See also: Sterling Hall bombing


Bascom Hill, 1968, with crosses placed by students protesting the Vietnam War, and sign reading, "BASCOM MEMORIAL CEMETERY, CLASS OF 1968"


Sign near Sterling Hall commemorating fatal 1970 bomb attack
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, UW–Madison was shaken by a series of student protests, and by the use of force by authorities in response, comprehensively documented in the film The War at Home. The first major demonstrations protested the presence on campus of recruiters for the Dow Chemical Company, which supplied the napalm used in the Vietnam War. Authorities used force to quell the disturbance. The struggle was documented in the book, They Marched into Sunlight,[24] as well as the PBS documentary Two Days in October.[25] Among the students injured in the protest was current Madison mayor Paul Soglin.
Another target of protest was the Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC), located in Sterling Hall, which was also home of the physics department. The student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal, published a series of investigative articles stating that AMRC was pursuing research directly pursuant to US Department of Defense requests, and supportive of military operations in Vietnam. AMRC became a magnet for demonstrations, in which protesters chanted "U.S. out of Vietnam! Smash Army Math!"
On August 24, 1970, near 3:40 am, a bomb exploded next to Sterling Hall, aimed at destroying the Army Math Research Center.[26] Despite the late hour, a post doctoral physics researcher, Robert Fassnacht, was in the lab and was killed in the explosion. The physics department was severely damaged, while the intended target, the AMRC, was scarcely affected. Karleton Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, and David Fine were found responsible for the blast. Leo Burt was identified as a suspect, but was never apprehended or tried.[27]
While the student body has shed much of its radical image, the campus is still known for its progressive politics.[citation needed] In February 2011, thousands of students marched and occupied the Wisconsin State Capitol during the 2011 Wisconsin protests.
Timeline of notable events[edit]

professor (mathematics), the first class of 17 students met at Madison Female Academy on February 5, 1849. A permanent campus site was soon selected: an area of 50 acres (20.2 ha) "bounded north by Fourth lake, east by a street to be opened at right angles with King street," [later State Street] "south by Mineral Point Road (University Avenue), and west by a carriage-way from said road to t

n. John H. Lathrop became the university's first chancellor, in the fall of 1849.[16] With John W. Sterling as the university's first professor (mathematics), the first class of 17 students met at Madison Female Academy on February 5, 1849. A permanent campus site was soon selected: an area of 50 acres (20.2 ha) "bounded north by Fourth lake, east by a street to be opened at right angles with King street," [later State Street] "south by Mineral Point Road (University Avenue), and west by a carriage-way from said road to the lake." The regents' building plans called for a "main edifice fronting towards the Capitol, three stories high, surmounted by an observatory for astronomical observations."[17] This building, University Hall, now known as Bascom Hall, was finally completed in 1859. On October 10, 1916, a fire destroyed the building's dome, which was never replaced. North Hall, constructed in 1851, was actually the first building on campus. In 1854, Levi Booth and Charles T. Wakeley became the first graduates of the university, and in 1892 the university awarded its first PhD to future university president Charles R. Van Hise.[18]
The Wisconsin Idea[edit]
Research, teaching, and service at the UW is influenced by a tradition known as "the Wisconsin Idea," first articulated by UW–Madison President Charles Van Hise in 1904, when he declared "I shall never be content until the beneficent influence of the University reaches every home in the state."[19] The Wisconsin Idea holds that the boundaries of the university should be the boundaries of the state, and that the research conducted at UW–Madison should be applied to solve problems and improve health, quality of life, the environment, and agriculture for all citizens of the state. The Wisconsin Idea permeates the university’s work and helps forge close working relationships among university faculty and students, and the state's industries and government.[20] Based in Wisconsin's populist history, the Wisconsin Idea continues to inspire the work of the faculty, staff, and students who aim to solve real-world problems by working together across disciplines and demographics.[21]
World War II[edit]
During World War II, University of Wisconsin was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[22]
Expansion[edit]
Main article: University of Wisconsin System
Over time, additional campuses were added to the university. The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee was created in 1956, and UW–Green Bay and UW–Parkside in 1968. Ten freshman-sophomore centers were also added to this system.[23] In 1971, Wisconsin legislators passed