Dates in Northwest History | About Northwest

April

Day	Year	Event
April 1	1960	With President J.W. Jones' permission, KDLX began broadcasting to men's dormitories. The radio station began seven years earlier as an amateur ham radio club on campus.
April 1	1978	Northwest's new all-weather track was named for Herschel Neil, who won 17 individual MIAA titles and set eight school records during his four-year track career at Northwest from 1934 to 1937. Neil, who also won the 1936 NCAA championship in the triple jump, finished fourth at the Olympic Trials in New York that same year, competing against legendary Jesse Owens.
April 1	1998	An upgrade to Northwest's electronic mail system allowed users to send emails through an Internet browser. The new system's features included the ability to send images.
April 1	2022	President John Jasinski announced his departure from the University, effective June 30.
April 2	1927	The Theta chapter of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity became the first fraternity on campus.
April 2	2011	Northwest hosted the Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) regional contest with 150 students figuring calculations at Horace Mann Laboratory School.
April 3	1983	Campus Activities Programmers kicked off Stroller Daze, a week of activities for students that featured a ventriloquist, games, movies and a dance.
April 4	2002	The Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum opened in B.D. Owens Library, honoring the 1945 graduate who helped program the world's first electronic computer.
April 5	1932	The Snooper, a "second cousin to the Stroller," appeared in the College newspaper.
April 5	2018	The Department of Fine and Performing Arts opened its three-night run of the musical version of “Footloose” in the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts for the University's biennial musical production.
April 5	2019	Northwest rededicated its tennis facility as the Mark Rosewell Tennis Center at the Frank W. Grube Courts in honor of Rosewell, who began coaching men's and women's tennis at the University in 1984 and had accumulated more than 1,100 wins and 26 regular season MIAA titles.
April 5	2020	Three days after the Nodaway County Health Department confirmed the first positive case of COVID-19 locally, Northwest reported its first positive case affecting an employee.
April 6	1980	A six-week exhibit of hand-crafted musical instruments from the Smithsonian Institute opened in the gallery of the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. The exhibit featuring 75 instruments had not been seen outside the Smithsonian Institute.
April 7	1928	Leland Medsker won the state inter-collegiate oratorical college.
April 7	2011	A contingent of leaders from Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom returned to Northwest, continuing a collaboration the institutions began in January 2010 to focus on improving student employment.
April 7	2016	Theatre Northwest opened “Legally Blonde: The Musical” as its biennial student musical.
April 8	1948	Chest X-rays were given as a compulsory part of every student's physical examination.
April 8	2022	Platinum-selling pop band AJR performed in the Carl and Cheryl Hughes Fieldhouse for the Student Activities Council's spring concert. It was the first concert in the Hughes Fieldhouse.
April 9	1915	An indoor track meet took place in Room 114 in the Administration Building.
April 9	1937	The Hays property, east of College Drive, became part of campus grounds. Today it is the site of the Mabel Cook Recruitment and Visitors Center.
April 10	2014	The Department of Fine and Performing Arts opened “Urinetown” at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts for its biennial musical production.
April 11	1960	Northwest announced Horace Mann Senior High School, led by Principal Herb Dieterich, would close at the end of the academic year as a result of declining enrollment.
April 11	1974	Northwest hosted the Missouri Division of the American Association of University Women's (AAUW) biennial three-day convention, which was dedicated to the late Dr. Blanche Dow, a past AAUW president and head of Northwest's foreign languages department.
April 11	1996	The Department of Agriculture hosted the National Association of Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) National Agriculture Judging Conference.
April 11	1997	Heavy snowfall canceled classes.
April 12	1921	The Board of Regents voted to send a committee to the governor to show him the need for releasing $200,000 that had been appropriated for a women's dormitory.
April 12	1948	Headquarters Battery of the Missouri National Guard was reactivated and stationed in the College gymnasium.
April 12	1964	A tornado ripped through the west part of Maryville, causing an estimated $1.5 million in damage and littering the campus with debris.
April 13	1945	Horace Mann faculty and students conducted a memorial service paying tribute to the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
April 13	1964	Students staged a sit-in at the Nodaway County courthouse and marched on Maryville's Main Street in protest of the food selection in the campus cafeteria.
April 13	2004	Dr. Mark Corson, assistant professor of geography, is welcomed back to campus with a reception. He returned from a deployment with the U.S. Army Reserve for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
April 13	2013	Alternative rock band Chevelle performed at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts for SAC's spring concert.
April 14	1949	An oil tank exploded behind Women's Residence Hall but resulted in no damage to the building.
April 15	1919	The first athletic letters were awarded in women's basketball.
April 15	1932	Faculty salaries were reduced about 20 percent of one month's salary.
April 15	1971	Northwest dedicated its is electronic pipe organ, which the school received the previous year from the University of Kansas, with a recital in the Charles Johnson Theater.
April 15	1996	Students kicked off the annual Northwest Week with a pizza-eating contest sponsored by KDLX.
April 15	2011	Chart-topping rock band Goo Goo Dolls performed to a packed Bearcat Arena crowd for the Student Activities Council’s spring concert.
April 15	2013	Maci Bookout, from MTV's "Teen Mom," shared her story in the J.W. Jones Student Union Ballroom as part of Student Activities Council's "SAC Speaks" lecture series.
April 16	1934	A committee of faculty, including Olive DeLuce and H.R. Dieterich, departed for a week of visits to the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota to study general education curriculum.
April 17
April 18	2011	Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, appeared at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Student Activities Council's lecture series. Ten lucky Northwest students received a free pair of TOMS shoes through a social media contest that challenged students to capture photos with President John Jasinski and first lady Denise Jasinski wearing their TOMS shoes.
April 19	1956	Distribution began of "Behind the Birches," the history of Northwest's first 50 years, authored by Mattie Dykes, an alumna and English faculty member for 35 years.
April 19	1979	The research of history professor Tom Carneal results in the Thomas Gaunt House's addition to the National Register of Historic Places.
April 19	1998	Maryville's area code changed from 816 to 660.
April 20	1940	The Northwest Missourian's Virgil Klontz was elected president of the Missouri College Newspaper Association.
April 20	1977	Sarah Caldwell, a Maryville native and “the first lady of American Opera,” conducted a concert with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Lamkin Gym. Gov. Joseph Teasdale declared the day “Sarah Caldwell Day in Missouri,” and Maryville Mayor Marvin Slagle issued a proclamation calling it “Sarah Caldwell Day.”
April 20	1995	Northwest student Karen Hawkins was murdered, shocking the community; the Northwest Peace Pavilion at Colden Pond was constructed later and dedicated as a memorial to her by the Class of 1995.
April 20	2010	The Student Senate voted unanimously to return $10,000 from its budget to the University in response to state cuts to higher education funding.
April 20	2013	Northwest unveiled an updated family of athletics logos that included a more modern paw and new Bobby Bearcat logos.
April 21	1920	The Overall Club was organized, with C.T. (Bill) Richards as president and a stated purpose "to reduce the high cost of clothing." (Later the name is changed to Khaki Association, as members wore khaki.)
April 21	1949	President Emeritus Dr. Uel Lamkin suffered a stroke of paralysis.
April 21	1972	Missouri Gov. Warren Hearnes signed a bill designating the school as Northwest Missouri State University.
April 21	2020	The School of Agricultural Sciences welcomed its newly acquired Guernsey herd to the R.T Wright Farm. Northwest received the cattle, known as the Foremost Guernsey herd, through a transfer agreement with the University of Missouri-Columbia.
April 22	1970	Selected Northwest faculty members participated in a nationwide "teach-in" concerning pollution and devoted part of their class time to discussions about the problem.
April 22	1981	The Robert P. Foster Aquatic Center, now the Robert and Virginia Foster Fitness Center, was dedicated.
April 23	1937	The Northwest Missourian wins a first- class honor rating in the Associated Collegiate Press contest.
April 23	1940	The Student Senate adopted an oath of office for new members.
April 23	1951	The Air Force Clerk-Typist school was located on campus.
April 23	1964	Dr. Frank Grube's Shakespeare class gave a program in the Horace Mann auditorium to celebrate Shakespeare's 400th birthday.
April 24	1961	The inaugural "Festival of Arts," a four-day series chaired by Charles Johnson and featuring arts activities including an organ recital, art history lecture and presentation of "The Mikado," began on the campus.
April 24	1981	Construction begins on the B.D. Owens Library and ground is broken for the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts.
April 24	2020	Northwest celebrated the start of construction on its Agricultural Learning Center with a virtual groundbreaking ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 25	1912	Miss Hettie Anthony, Mr. Frank Shepherd and Miss Harriett Day presented a short course in homemaking.
April 26	1940	The editor of The Northwest Missourian, who had written a scathing criticism of the policies of the College administration, distributed it while the president, the dean and the faculty advisor to the staff were off campus.
April 26	1950	George Colbert, former dean of the faculty, died at age 88.
April 26	1997	Herbert Dieterich died at the age of 98. He had served the University from 1928 through 1969, including as the first principal of the Horace Mann Senior High School; one of Northwest's high-rise residence halls was dedicated in his honor in 1971.
April 26	2011	Members of the Delta Nu chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon camped outside for seven days for their annual can food drive.
April 27	1942	English novelists Charles Morgan and Hilda Vaughan visited the campus.
April 27	2002	For the first time, spring commencement was divided into two ceremonies to accommodate overflowing crowds.
April 28	1951	Four women were injured when a gas tank explosion caused a fire in Residence Hall. Roberta Steel, a victim of the explosion, died the next year.
April 29	2012	Gov. Jay Nixon delivered the commencement address at an afternoon ceremony honoring graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Human Services.
April 29	2014	Cody Uhing was sworn in for his second term as Student Senate president, becoming just the third student in the Student Senate's history to be elected to a second term as president of the student body.
April 29	2017	During commencement ceremonies, Northwest bestowed the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on Karen Daniel, a 1980 alumna, business woman and philanthropist for her enduring commitment to Northwest, stellar leadership and her unwavering dedication to improving communities. Breanna Ripley, of Omaha, Nebraska, became the first student to graduate with Northwest's bachelor's degree in organizational behavior and human resource management.
April 30	1924	The school reported 17 student organizations on the campus; 16,829 books in the library; and 400 women and 209 men enrolled.
April 30	2011	Northwest bestowed the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on 1983 alumnus and United States Army Col. Christopher Hughes during its spring commencement ceremonies.