9 October: Yale University Founded

On this date in 1701 Yale University was founded. 10 facts about an American University.

1. Yale University is located in New Haven, Connecticut and is home to over 12,000 students.
2. Famous graduates of Yale include Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Paul Newman, Henry Winkler, Vincent Price, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett Cole Porter; child psychologist Benjamin Spock and lexicographer Noah Webster. In the realm of fiction, the narrator of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and fellow character Tom Buchanan also went there.
3. Yale's motto is Lux et veritas, which translates as "Light and Truth". Its mascot is a bulldog, known as "Handsome Dan".
4. It was originally called The Collegiate School, but was re-named Yale in honour of Elihu Yale, the governor of the East India Company, for his gifts to the school.
5. There is a building on campus which has "windows" made from translucent marble. It's the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and the reason is to protect the rare books from exposure to sunlight. The windows are not the only lengths they go to to protect the books. If there is a Fire, 30 seconds after the alarm goes off the library is flooded with a fire-suppressing gas, which is lethal to humans. Another safeguard is that the entire library can drop down to an underground vault where all the Oxygen is sucked out of the air. The books are more important than human lives! One of the manuscripts housed in there is the mysterious ‘Voynich Manuscript’, originating from medieval Europe. It is written in a mysterious language nobody has ever been able to translate and is illustrated with mysterious drawings.
6. Some other odd things tucked away in obscure corners of the university include 74 Greco-Roman-Egyptian Magical amulets with Greek letters on, possibly spelling magic words akin to ‘Abracadabra'. Students are actually warned to be careful what they think of while handling them. There is also a huge collection of tapeworms.
7. Yale has its own newspaper, the oldest collegiate daily newspaper still in existence. Yale Daily News was first published in 1878 and is still issued five days a week.
8. One Yale graduation tradition involves graduates receiving clay pipes along with a small packet of tobacco. They are supposed to smoke the tobacco and then crush the pipe to symbolise the end of their college days.
9. The brightest and best students, such as sports captains and editors of publications, may be invited to join an obscure Yale society called Skull and Bones. Only fifteen students are invited each year. Past members include three US presidents - William Howard Taft and both George Bush Senior and Junior. It's alleged that this group stole the Skull of Geronimo and keep it in a glass case.
10. There is a haunted room. According to legend, three students died in this room before it was locked and the lock removed, because, it was said, the dead students haunted the room. A more likely explanation is that the room was abandoned after renovations and the ghosts are figments of students' imaginations.

See also 

Harvard 

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