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1910 The January issue of the Magazine reported on the progress of University College. Founded in 1898 "for the purpose of conducting afternoon, evening, and Saturday classes in college subjects for those who found it impossible or inconvenient to attend the classes on the University quadrangles," University College held classes in the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago for its first seven years. Despite declining enrollment and funding around 1906, University College experienced a fairly quick rebound with the addition of "an attractive programme of University courses," resulting in the enrollment of 429 students in 1909.

1950 "A single ounce of wood from an Egyptian mummy's casket now tells scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Studies just when the long-dead Egyptian lived," reported the February issue. Developed by chemistry professor William F. Libby and his research associate J. R. Arnold, the new method dated objects by measuring their radioactivity. Using Libby's discovery--which won the 1960 Nobel Prize--that continued bombardment of cosmic rays turns some carbon atoms in living things into radioactive Carbon 14, scientists were able to determine an object's age by determining the radioactivity of the remaining carbon. The older a substance, the less radioactive it is.

1974 The Winter Magazine announced the October opening of the David and Alfred Smart Gallery. The gallery joined the Cochrane-Woods Arts Center to "become the new flagship of the various centers of artistic endeavors on the campus." Named in memory of the elder brothers of Esquire Inc. chair John Smart, with whom he founded the publishing company, the gallery opened with the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Robie House dining-room table and chairs as the centerpiece of the entrance hall.

1990 The Winter issue reported on psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on "flow," or optimal experience. Flow, the Magazine explained, is "the state of being in which you become so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter--an activity so compelling, so gripping and absorbing, so satisfying, that you do it for the sheer pleasure of it." Csikszentmihalyi, AB'60, PhD'65, became interested in the phenomenon after observing the near-fanatic devotion of a group of artists to their work--until it was finished, and they seemed to loss all interest in the piece.--Q.J.