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The Georgetown College Cadets, 1889.

Georgetown's Charles Denby, a student from 1841-1844 and honorary degree recipient in 1885, was appointed Minister to China by President Grover Cleveland in 1885. He served until 1898 and is one of the longest serving U.S. envoys to China since the first U.S. envoy was appointed in 1843. Denby was an influential arbiter between China and Japan during the Sino-Japanese War in 1895.

No. Georgetown, founded in 1789, is the oldest Catholic university in the United States. Saint Thomas University in Bogotá, Colombia was founded in 1580, and is likely the oldest Catholic university still in operation in America.

The words to "Maryland, My Maryland" were written 150 years ago by journalist and poet James Ryder Randall, who attended Georgetown from 1848 to 1856. In 1861, while chair of English Literature at Poydras College, Pointe-Coupée, Louisiana, Randall read a newspaper report of the Baltimore Riot. This clash between pro-South civilians and Union troops in Randall's native city on 19 April, 1861, resulted in what is commonly accepted as the first bloodshed of the Civil War. The account Randall read stated--incorrectly as it turned out--that Francis X.

The bulldog was selected as our mascot in 1962. In that year, a student committee set out to restore the tradition of a live mascot, a tradition that had lapsed in 1951 when the University suspended varsity football. The committee settled on the English bulldog as the breed that best embodied the tenacity of Hoya athletes. A three-year-old purebred bulldog was purchased, one who came with the pedigree name of Lil-Nan's Royal Jacket, but who answered to Jack.

O'Gara Building

Beginning in the 1960s, a number of well-known musicians played at student-organized concerts in McDonough Gym, including Ray Charles (1963), Peter, Paul & Mary (1964), the Kingston Trio (1965), Johnny Mathis (1966), The Lovin’ Spoonful (1967), the Four Tops (1968), The Who (Homecoming 1969), the Grateful Dead (Homecoming 1970), and Traffic (November 1970). After incidents at the Grateful Dead concert and the Traffic concert (which was attended by 6000 people, 2000 more than fire regulations permitted), the University administration suspended concerts on campus.

The University awarded its first honorary doctorate in 1821. It was not until 1934, two hundred and thirty seven honorary degrees later, that one was awarded to a woman.

Jesuit Cemetery before 1889