In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the town is raising money to pay for sprinkling the streets, Robert Goheen defends free speech on campus, and more.

March 18, 1991—On today’s episode of Sally Jesse Raphael, the Princeton University band surprises Brooke Shields ’87 with a rendition of “Cannon.”

March 19, 1886—The Princetonian reports on a fundraising effort in town to pay for sprinkling the streets.

March 20, 1819—Erkuries Beatty writes to James Hunter Ewing, Class of 1818, to ask for help tracking down a runaway slave named Joseph, age 20.

March 21, 1972—Princeton University president Robert Goheen weighs in on the controversy surrounding R. J. Herrnstein backing out of an invitation to lecture on his research on the intelligence of pigeons (which has led to Herrnstein proposing a theory that racial disparities in IQ testing are based on genetic differences) because Princeton would not ban protesters from attending. In a letter to Herrnstein, Goheen says, “We do not here believe that academicians any more than anyone else have a right to claim total immunity to minor heckling (including placards).”

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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