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GW in History

25 Years Ago

Second-time Democratic candidate George McGovern made his presidential bid announcement on Sept. 13, 1983, at GW’s Marvin Center Theatre. More than 400 people gathered to hear McGovern speak of “a revival of the old common sense that has guided our greatest leaders since George Washington” as well as an end to “the age of big-power intervention in the internal affairs of small countries,” according to The Hatchet. McGovern said he chose to make his announcement at the University because GW College Democrats were the first group to invite him to speak after he made his final decision to seek office, The Hatchet reported. He lost in a landslide to Republican incumbent Richard Nixon in 1972.

50 Years Ago

The University’s first radio station went on the air when an engineering student rebuilt a control room in the speech department. The student-run station operated without any cost to the University and commercials paid for the cost of building the $750 transmitter. The new station’s call letters were WGW, and the station broadcasted “disc jockey programs, news, University football and basketball contests, performances at Lisner auditorium, interviews of political figures by University professors and radio plays,” reported The Hatchet. The following year, the station changed its name to WRGW.

100 Years Ago

Trustees authorized the College of Veterinary Medicine. Students were to learn animal doctoring through the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., where “students of the college may keep closely in touch with the most recent investigations in veterinary science,” according to The George Washington University Bulletin. “Visits to stock and dairy farms in company with clinical professors are required.” The Veterinary College was abandoned in 1918.

GW Magazine gratefully acknowledges the assistance of University Archives in the identification of interesting historical information. For more about GW’s history, check out the University Archives Web site by accessing www.gwu.edu/gelman/archives. The site’s GW and Foggy Bottom Encyclopedia is especially informative.