GENERAL INFORMATION
HIGHLIGHTS OF TECH HISTORY
Selected Events from Georgia Tech's History |
|
| Year | Event |
| 1885 | On October 13, the Georgia Legislature passed a bill appropriating $65,000 to found a technical school. |
| 1886 | Atlanta was chosen as the location for the Georgia School of Technology. |
| 1887 | Developer Richard Peters donated four acres of land known as Peters Park to the new school. |
| 1888 | The Academic Building (in use today as the Administration Building) was completed. Georgia Tech opened for classes on October 8, with the School of Mechanical Engineering and departments of Chemistry, Mathematics, and English. By January 1889, 129 students had registered to work toward the only degree offered, the Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. |
| 1890 | Tech graduated its first two students. |
| 1892 | Tech fields its first football team. |
| 1896 | The Schools of Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering were established. |
| 1899 | The A. French Textile School was established. |
| 1901 | The School of Chemical Engineering was established. The Athletic Association was organized. |
| 1903 | John Heisman became the school's first full-time football coach. |
| 1904 | The Department of Modern Languages was established. |
| 1906 | The School of Chemistry was established. Andrew Carnegie donated $20,000 to build a library. |
| 1907 | The Carnegie Library opened. |
| 1908 | Tech's Night School opened. Fulton County granted an organizational charter to the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. The first edition of the annual, The Blue Print, appeared. The Department of Architecture was established. |
| 1910 | The first official band was formed. |
| 1911 | The Technique, the weekly student newspaper, began publication. |
| 1912 | The Cooperative Education Department was established to coordinate work-study programs. |
| 1913 | The School of Commerce, forerunner of the College of Management, was established. |
| 1916 | The Georgia Tech Student Association was established. |
| 1917 | The Department of Military Science was established. The Evening School of Commerce admitted its first woman student. |
| 1918 | Tech joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Senior units of the Coast Artillery and Signal Corps of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) are established. The school and alumni launched the Greater Georgia Tech fund-raising campaign. |
| 1919 | The Legislature authorized the Engineering Experiment Station. |
| 1920 | The national Alumni Association convened its first meeting. George P. Burdell, Tech's long-lived mythical student, begins “attending” class. |
| 1921 | Tech became a charter member of the Southern Intercollegiate Conference. |
| 1923 | The Georgia Tech Alumnus magazine began publication. The Alumni Association began an alumni placement service. Tech was elected to the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. |
| 1924 | The School of Ceramics was established. Tech received an FCC license to operate radio station WGST. |
| 1925 | Tech awarded its first Master of Science degrees. |
| 1926 | Tech established a Naval ROTC unit. The Department of Naval Science was established. |
| 1930 | The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics was established. |
| 1931 | The Georgia Legislature created the University System of Georgia. |
| 1932 | The Board of Regents of the University System assumed control of all state public schools, including Tech. The Georgia Tech Alumni Foundation held its first meeting. |
| 1934 | The Department of Management was established. The Engineering Experiment Station began engineering research projects. |
| 1937 | The Industrial Development Council (forerunner of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation) was created to be the contractual agency for the Engineering Experiment Station. |
| 1939 | The School of Physics was established. |
Source: Office of the Executive Director, Institute
Communications and Public Affairs