UC Irvine Major Milestones

1957     Orange County chosen by University of California Regents for new campus site

1958     William Pereira contracted as Master Architect for the UC Orange County campus

1960     The Irvine Company donates 1,000 acres to UC for Irvine campus

1961     UC Regents name Orange County campus “University of California, Irvine”

1962     Daniel Aldrich appointed first Chancellor

1963     The Irvine Company sells an additional 510 acres to UC, priced at $6,500 per acre

1964     President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicates campus

1965     First day of classes (October 4)

1966     First Graduation (June 25)

1967     Agreement signed to make California College of Medicine part of UC Irvine

1984     Jack Peltason appointed UCI’s second Chancellor

1988     National Academies of Sciences and Engineering building opens

1993     Laurel Wilkening appointed UCI’s third Chancellor

1994     Comparative Literature (8th) and French (10th) graduate programs ranked in top ten by National Research Council

1995     Frederick Reines (Physics) and F. Sherwood Rowland (Chemistry) receive UCI’s first two Nobel Prizes

1995     UCI is ranked 48th among all U.S. universities by U.S. News & World Report

1996     UCI elected to the American Association of Universities

1998     Ralph Cicerone appointed UCI’s fourth Chancellor

2000     Governor Gray Davis establishes California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology Calit2 at UCI

2002     UCI is ranked 12th among public universities by U.S. News & World Report

2004     Irwin Rose (Chemistry) receives UCI’s third Nobel Prize

2005     Michael V. Drake appointed UCI’s fifth Chancellor

2009    UCI’s School of Law is the first public law school in California to open in more than 40 years.