The journey to 200

Lord Dalhousie lays the original cornerstone of Dalhousie College, facing the Grand Parade (where Halifax City Hall now stands). Keeping with tradition, the ceremony includes pouring corn, wine and oil on the stone.

Dr. Rev. Thomas McCulloch becomes Dalhousie's first president. A graduate of Glasgow University and a Scottish divine (Presbyterian), McCulloch taught logic, Greek, political economy and natural philosophy.

The university offers its first instruction after being delayed for many years by sectarian politics. The official timetable for the autumn of 1838 includes courses in Latin, Greek, algebra, logic, mathematics, rhetoric, moral philosophy and natural philosophy. McCulloch’s death in 1842 would pause operations for another twenty years. (image: The Pearl v.2 no.33)

Professor Rev. James Ross begins serving as president. A pupil of McCulloch’s at Pictou Academy, Ross was also a Presbyterian minister.

The Department of English, one of the oldest in Canada, is founded with the appointment of James De Mille as the first professor of rhetoric.

Dalhousie awards its first two Bachelor of Arts degrees to Joseph Henry Chase and Robert Shaw.

The first issue of the Dalhousie Gazette, Canada’s first college newspaper, is published. (Dalhousie Gazette v.1 i.1)

A Department of Science is set up and includes Dr. David Honeyman the first–but unpaid and part-time–professor of geology, paleontology and mineralogy. (Dalhousie Gazette v.11 i.2)

George Munro, a wealthy New York publisher with Nova Scotian roots, gives his first donation to the university. Over the years, he will contribute five endowed professorships and about $83,000 in bursaries and exhibitions for total benefactions reaching almost $350,000.

The Faculty of Law is created when Professor Weldon accepts appointment to the fourth of George Munro's chairs: Constitutional and International Law. It is the first university law school in the common law provinces of Canada and the British Empire. (Dalhousie Gazette v.16 i.1)

Rev. John Forrest becomes Dalhousie's third president. Known as “Lord John,” he joined Dalhousie in 1880 as the first George Munro professor of History and Political Economy.

Margaret Florence Newcombe is awarded her BA and becomes the first woman to graduate from Dalhousie.

The rugby team officially adopts Dalhousie's colours of black and gold.

Construction is completed on the New Dalhousie Building and the university moves. Now known as the Forrest Building on Carleton campus, the building is situated on five acres of land at the corner of Morris Street (University Avenue) and Robie Street.

Lucy Maud Montgomery enrols in Literature. Her third book “Anne of the Island” would be based on her experiences while at Dalhousie.

James Robinson Johnston is the first African Nova Scotian to graduate from the law school. Almost a century later, the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies would be established, “to bring Black culture, reality, perspectives, experiences and concerns into the academy.”

Dalhousie's first Rhodes Scholar, Gilbert S. Stairs (BA1903), heads to the University of Oxford (UK).

The Nova Scotia Agricultural College opens in Bible Hill, near Truro.

The Maritime Dental College opens its doors under the leadership of Dr. Frank Woodbury. It would become the Faculty of Dentistry in 1912. 

The Nova Scotia Technical College opens on Spring Garden Road with F.H. Sexton as the principal and offers courses in civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and mining engineering.

The Board of Governors decides to buy Studley, one of the best large pieces of unoccupied land on the Halifax peninsula, for $50,000 from former board member Robert Murray's widow. In 1912, the cornerstone of the Science building is laid by the Governor General of Canada, The Duke of Connaught. In 1914, the cornerstone is laid for the Macdonald Library (now the Macdonald Building).

During World War I, the No. 7 Hospital forms to meet a desperate need for medical personnel to treat Canadian soldiers at the front. Its 162 personnel, including officers, non-commissioned officers and nurses, are all students and professors from the Dalhousie Medical College.

The Halifax explosion leaves thousands in Halifax dead and thousands more homeless. Dalhousie casualties are comparatively light. Because the windows in the new science building and library were destroyed, classes are stopped until after the holidays.

Eliza Ritchie (BA1887) is appointed to the Board of Governors making her the first woman in Canada to hold such a position.

The first nursing program in Nova Scotia is established at Dalhousie. It’s also one of the first in Canada. (Dalhousie Gazette v.52 i.7)

The cornerstone of the Arts Building is laid. For many years, it was home to the Law School and now it's the University Club.

The Dalhousie Review is founded by Herbert L. Stewart, professor of philosophy and has been in continuous operation since.

After a disastrous fire, University of King's College relocates to Halifax with help from the Carnegie Foundation and enters into a partnership with Dalhousie that continues as an immensely productive relationship to this day.

A new School of Fisheries—the first of its kind in Canada—receives inaugural federal funding to equip a Marine Biological Laboratory in Eastern Passage.

Dalhousie's fifth president, Dr. Carleton Wellesley Stanley, is installed. A University of Toronto and Oxford graduate, he taught English at Toronto and Greek at McGill. He was also a Canadian correspondent of the Manchester Guardian.

A course in Public Administration is introduced, the first of its kind in Canada. The new course is commended as an example of the current educational progress at Dalhousie.

World War II begins. During the war, thousands of Nova Scotians go overseas. Pilot Officer Rand Lugar was the first Dalhousie student to be killed in the war. (Dalhousie Gazette v.74 i.1) The Class of 1945 yearbook claimed "The most notable thing about the Class of '45, about any Class at Dalhousie, is its apparent nonexistence much of its four years."

Thanks to government incentives for veterans, enrolment increases 62 per cent to 1,153 students, nearly half are veterans. Enrolment peaks at 1,873 in 1947-48 before again declining.

Dr. Alexander Leighton begins his groundbreaking study of mental health in Stirling County and discovers that approximately one in five adults will suffer from some sort of mental illness. The ongoing study boasts the longest grant in the history of the National Institutes of Health.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies is established, strengthening the university's capacity for advanced education. (Dalhousie Gazette v.82 i.1)

The Arts and Administration Building, now the iconic symbol of Dalhousie, opens on the site of the old Murray homestead providing much needed office and classroom space.

The longstanding requirement of two years of Latin (or Greek) comes to an end based on the argument that “classical literature in translation allows the rounding out of the discipline into its many diversities without the severe concentration on grammar and philology.”

Bertha Wilson graduates from the School of Law. She would become the first female Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1982.

C.D. Howe is named as the first chancellor. He would be officially installed in March 1958.

The Institute of Oceanography is formed by Ronald Hayes with faculty from the biology, chemistry, geology and physics departments. (Dalhousie Gazette v.93 i.9)

The School of Architecture is established at the Nova Scotia Technical College. It was the first and only program of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

The new Faculty of Health Professions welcomes students with Dr. Robert MacDonald as its first Dean.

Dr. Henry Davies Hicks becomes Dalhousie’s seventh president. A Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, politician, Premier and first Minister of Education of Nova Scotia in the 1950s, he is the only president (to date) to become a Senator of Canada.

Dalhousie gets its first big computer: an IBM 1620, which is so big and ponderous it has to be hoisted with a huge crane into the upper floor of the Dunn Buiding via the roof.

Arthur B. McDonald, co-recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, graduates with his first Dalhousie degree (BSc'64, MSc'65).

The great support of Dorothy J. Killam, in memory of Izaak Walton Killam, creates an endowment to further graduate studies. In honor of her philanthropy, the Dorothy J. Killam Memorial Lecture Series continues to bring great minds to campus every year.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, officially opens the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building and receives an honorary degree as part of the Canadian centennial celebrations. Later the same year, the Weldon Law Building opens.

Expansion along University Avenue includes the new Student Union Building and excavation and construction for the Killam Memorial Library and the Dalhousie Arts Centre. The grand opening of the Student Union Building is celebrated with three days of activities and the appearance of a live tiger.

Dalhousie’s Killam Memorial Library opens, now the largest academic library in Atlantic Canada with over one million books and 40,000 journals.

The Africville Relocation Report of 1971, by Don Clairmont and Dennis Magill, documents the story of the residents of Africville whose homes and lands were expropriated by the City of Halifax during the 1960s. This report continues to be a primary source for study in many areas of scholarship.

Marshal of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito receives an honorary degree from Dalhousie in the first convocation at the new Dalhousie Arts Centre.

The Dalhousie varsity field hockey team becomes the Canadian Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union champions following an undefeated regular season.

Dalhousie Faculty Association is recognized as the official bargaining unit for the faculty, with the first contract following in 1979. This recognition signifies a major change in university operations. (Dalhousie Gazette v.111 i.9)

After years of planning–including a dispute between Dal and the City of Halifax over zoning that was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada–Dalplex, the university’s new recreation facility, opens with an innovative “air structure” roof.

For the first time in 52 years, the Dalhousie Men's Hockey team wins the Atlantic University Hockey Conference and then goes on to take silver in the nationally televised Canadian Interuniversity championship game in Montreal.

Tigers Women's Volleyball team wins Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships gold. Not before (or yet) has a team from the Atlantic University Sport conference captured a national championship in volleyball.

CKDU, Dalhousie’s community radio station, hits the FM airwaves after a decade of broadcasting through closed circuit to Dal residences.

The Sir James Dunn Law Library is destroyed by fire when a lightning strike causes a short in the electrical system. The library would reopen four years later.

Dr. Howard C. Clark begins serving as Dalhousie's ninth president. Born in New Zealand, he previously taught chemistry and held administrative posts at the Universities of Western Ontario, British Columbia, Auckland and Guelph.  (Dalhousie Gazette v.118 i.20)

The law school establishes the Indigenous Blacks and Mi'kmaq Initiative (IB&M) program, ensuring that Mi'kmaq and African Nova Scotian students have equitable representation in the law school—and in the justice system.

Dr. Tom Traves is installed as Dalhousie's tenth president. Dr. Traves would oversee mergers with the Technical University of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and spearhead the $280-million Bold Ambitions fundraising campaign.

Following an undefeated regular season, the Tigers Men's Soccer team becomes the first Nova Scotia men's soccer team to win the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships gold.

Biology professor Thomas MacRae becomes Dalhousie's first 3M National Teaching Fellow, the only national cross-disciplinary recognition of excellence in university teaching in Canada.

Dalhousie amalgamates with the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNS), formerly the Nova Scotia Technical College, strengthening the university's ability to explore new applied technologies. This also creates a new Faculty of Computer Science. 

Dalhousie signs the Talloires Declaration, a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach at colleges and universities. (Dalhousie Gazette v.131 i.20)

DalOUT begins offering education, support, and network-building for the LGBTQ+ community at Dalhousie and beyond.

Dalhousie becomes the first smoke-free campus in Canada. More than 82 per cent of Dalhousie community members who responded supported the policy’s adoption.

The Scientist magazine names Dalhousie fourth overall in the Best Places to Work for Postdocs and first among non-US institutions following their first annual survey of the postdoc community.

A team of forward-looking professors from diverse disciplines found the College of Sustainability, and two years later launch the Environment, Sustainability and Society program, the only program of its kind in Canada and one of only two in North America.

An agreement signed by the Government of New Brunswick, Dalhousie University and the University of New Brunswick creates the Dalhousie Medical Program in New Brunswick. The program will enable 30 New Brunswick students a year to study medicine in their home province.

The Faculty of Management's Corporate Residency MBA program is launched. The following year, European CEO magazine touts the faculty as the most innovative business school in Canada.

The Tigers play their first home football game in 34 years thanks to Dal alum Jim Wilson (MBA ’87), who felt football would bring more school spirit to Dal. As a Club team, the Tigers are part of the Atlantic Football League.

The Atlantic Aboriginal Junior University begins welcoming youth from around Atlantic Canada for hands-on experiences in traditional aboriginal healing as well as introductions to the health professions.

Dalhousie alumna Elizabeth May (LLB’83) makes history by becoming the first Green Party candidate to be elected to the House of Commons.

The university amalgamates with the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro (now the Faculty of Agriculture) welcoming faculty, staff and nearly 1,000 new students into the Dalhousie family.

The Mona Campbell Building becomes the first LEED Gold certified university building in Atlantic Canada.

The Steele Ocean Sciences Building is added to the west end of the Life Sciences Centre to host offices and labs for several of Dalhousie’s key oceans projects.

Dr. Richard Florizone begins his term as Dalhousie’s 11th president, bringing a unique mix of academic and professional skills developed through extensive experience with universities, companies and government in Canada and abroad.

The Collaborative Health Education Building opens to provide an integrated learning experience for the university's 3,700 Medicine, Dentistry and Health Professions students.

The Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) is formed with the announcement that the federal government would be committing $93.7 million through its Canada First Research Excellence Fund. OFI also receives $125 million in additional support from provincial governments and partners—including a $25 million gift from business leader and philanthropist John Risley—for a total of $220 million in funding, an unprecedented investment in Canada’s ocean-science sector.

The $64-million IDEA project is officially announced: an extensive transformation of its downtown campus made possible by partnerships among donors, students, industry and the Government of Canada, which is contributing $32 million through its Strategic Infrastructure Fund.

After, finishing the AUS campaign with a third straight conference banner, the men’s basketball team takes home third place in the national championships – the best finish in team history.