Did you know that the oldest university in the English-speaking world is the University of Oxford? Oxford is located about 55 miles west of London, England in the town of Oxford. Lectures have been given at the university since about 1096, making Oxford over 900 years old! Think about that for a minute… Oxford was founded in 1096. The plague in Europe was in the 1300’s; America was discovered in 1492; the United States declared its independence in 1776; the Civil War was from 1861-65; the first airplane flight was in 1903. When I think about the 19th century, I try imagine the type of life that my ancestors were living. Their lives must have been extremely difficult in comparison to mine (thank goodness for modern conveniences!). What must it have been like in Oxford in 1096?
Did you also know…
that in the United States, the oldest institution of higher learning is Harvard University. Founded in 1636 and named after John Harvard of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Harvard has graduated seven presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush) and over 40 Nobel laureates. In addition, the Harvard University Library contains over 15 million volumes and is the largest academic library in the world (and the oldest library in the United States).