Word: fires
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Discovering that all of this was great fun, the College fire department soon acquired its own engine, which was tended regularly by students. Once, to keep it in shape, the students set an old house on fire. Because the apparatus was slightly decrepit the boys nearly reached the scene after the neighbors had succeeded in halting the blaze. Undaunted, the students pumped water on the neighbors, who had intruded upon the boys' prerogative. The real compensation for fighting even this blaze was a steak dinner at the Porter House...
There is little wonder that the Faculty devoted part of its June meeting in 1826 to the subject of fires and issued two edicts that "no student be allowed to go to Boston on any alarm of fire" and that "no student be permitted to assist in moving any fire engine to any fire beyond the limit of this village...
Bonfires either within the College Fence or elsewhere still annoyed Faculty and Presidents. Jared Sparks issued the infamous Laws of 1848, which included the edict that, "Any student crying fire, sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from a window, going to the fire, or being seen at it, going into the College Yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished accordingly...
...most famous blaze of the University's history broke out during a period when most of the College students were away. This Fire affected the history of Harvard as much as any before or since: all of John Harvard's library, save one book, was lost. In the middle of the night of Jan.24, 1764, Harvard Hall burned to the ground. The Massachusetts Great and General Court, driven out of Boston by a small pox epidemic, was occupying the halls of Harvard for its mid-winter sessions. Apparently one member piled open fire wood to high and it eventually caught...
...villagers and a handful of students managed to contain the fire, but the building was a complete loss. Even the Governor of the Commonwealth and his Legislature helped out in fetching water after the College pumps became useless in the bitter cold...