In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, an earthquake hits campus without negative consequences, the region anticipates a new transportation option shortening trips to and from New York, and more.

August 9, 1932—While on a scientific expedition in Wyoming, William Zachary Taylor ’32 discovers a new fossil, named the “Tubulon Taylori” in his honor. It is the first ancient ancestor of the anteater to be uncovered.

August 11, 1884—Professor Charles Augustus Young writes of the earthquake the day before that has confused the residents of the American northeast: “Taking it altogether it was certainly an excellent earthquake, vigorous enough to be instructive and interesting, but not so cruel and ferocious like those which have desolated other lands and almost ruined nations.”

August 14, 1861—The New York Daily Tribune reports on the exodus of Southern students from Princeton: “Before they left they became excessively insolent, broke off intercourse with Northern students, and put on plantation airs to an extent that brod [sic] very distinct mutterings of coming thunder. They herded together, rejoiced over the fall of Sumter, and made themselves so especially offensive that the whole town was rejoiced to be rid of them. Ask any resident of Princeton and he will tell you that the place has not been so quiet and respectable for twenty years, as since those ruffians have cleared out.”

August 15, 1837—New Yorkers are celebrating the fact that “When the rail road is completed, we shall be able to reach Princeton from this city in less than three hours.”

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

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