22 October: Princeton University

On this date in 1746, Princeton University received its charter. 10 things you might not know about Princeton:

1. When it received its charter, it wasn’t known as Princeton but as The College of New Jersey. The name was changed in 1896.

2. The main campus consists of more than 200 buildings on 600 acres (2.4 km2) in Princeton, New Jersey.

3. Talking of which, the use of the word “campus” to mean the grounds of a university, originated at Princeton.

4. The official motto is Dei Sub Numine Viget (Under God’s Power She Flourishes).

5. However, Princeton explicitly prohibited the admission of women from 1746 until 1969. That said, the first female graduate student was accepted in 1961 as a “special case”. Her name was Sabra Follett Meservey.

6. Nassau Hall is the oldest building on campus. Completed in 1756, it was the first seat of the New Jersey Legislature in 1776. Nearby is a courtyard called Cannon Green which has an actual cannon buried in it. The cannon in question was left behind by British troops as they fled following the Battle of Princeton.

7. The Princeton colours are Orange and Black and hence its mascot is a Tiger.

8. Some of Princeton’s traditions have included climbing to the top of Nassau Hall to steal the bell clapper, which rings to signal the start of classes on the first day of the school year. However, the health and safety people have put an end to that one by removing the clapper permanently. There also used to be a Nude Olympics which went the same way thanks to sexual harassment and safety concerns. One that still exists is a fight between a freshman and a sophomore over a cane. This originated in the 1870s when sophomores used to get envious of all the freshmen turning up with fancy canes and used to steal the canes and hit the freshmen with them. Another is walking through the university’s main gates, the FitzRandolph Gates, at graduation. It’s said that any student who walks through those gates before that will not graduate.

9. Princeton played in the first intercollegiate football game against Rutgers University in 1869.

10. Famous alumni include: U.S. Presidents James Madison and Woodrow Wilson, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, astronaut Pete Conrad (who took a Princeton flag to the moon in 1969), Actors James Stewart, David Duchovny and Brooke Shields; and writers F Scott Fitzgerald and Jodi Picoult.

Character birthday

Forcefield, aka Emily Lambert, a member of Combat Team Beta. Her power is creating a force field. Emily first used her powers as a teenager, to keep her over-protective parents out of her bedroom. They searched the room several times while she was at school, thinking she was hiding some kind of gadget in there.

She became involved with Combat Team Beta when, as part of her job in advertising, she was assigned to the Paradise Hotels account and given the job of coming up with a campaign for the Combat Teams. Realising she could help, she told them about her powers and volunteered to be part of the team.