In the spirit of solidarity with students at the Southern Branch, students at Berkeley drop the term Bruins. The new mascot took immediate effect when the student newspaper renamed itself the Daily Bruin on October 22, 1926. 

"We did it on a Friday preceeding a football game with Pomona. I went up to the print shop, and a copy came up, wherever there was the word Grizzly, I just made it Bruin," said Daily Bruin Edtior William E. Forbes. 

A year after, in acknowledgement of the efforts of the public to keep the Southern Branch in Los Angeles and to acknowledge the growing dissatisfaction with the name Southern Branch, the Regents rename the Southern Branch of the University of California to the University of California at Los Angeles (The "at" is dropped in 1958 for a comma).

A New Name and a New Mascot

In 2010, after three years of toil, UCLA professor and one of the nation’s greatest muralists, Judy Baca, unveiled two works honoring the leadership and ideals of the late Robert F. Kennedy. The two murals “speak to each other,” as Baca puts it, across the 100-foot room — on the same site where Kennedy was assassinated more than 40 years earlier.

On June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, senator and presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. He had just won the California Primary with a campaign and career built on the ideals of hope, compassion and equality. 

After years of gradual decline, the hotel was demolished to make room for the RFK Learning Center for K-12. Decades after the infamous assassination, Baca would create two 12- by 55-foot pieces to commemorate the late senator’s work for justice.   

The first mural, Seeing Through Others Eyes, is a multi-scene history lesson. Six petals of a lotus blossom, each painted to contain an individual scene, represent the six societal issues that Kennedy was most passionate about: environment, intolerance, poverty, education, health and war. Figures featured in the mural include a soldier, a woman and her sick mother, and a child of poverty. These three perspectives remind us to view our current societal issues through the eyes of others. Sitting in the center of the petals are Kennedy and César Chávez. The two men are breaking bread after Chávez’s 36-day “Fast for Life.” 

The second mural, Tiny Ripples of Hope, is based on Kennedy’s historic visit to South Africa in June of 1966. At the time, South Africa was in its darkest years of apartheid, while the U.S. struggled through the civil rights movement. His speech created ripples across the world, giving hope to all those who suffer segregation and persecution, then and now. In the mural, Kennedy is depicted as he was photographed in life — standing amidst an endless sea of hands reaching up to him as he stood on a car. His hands emit ripples into this sea, as he reaches down to lift up those below.  

Judy Baca is a UCLA professor of World Arts and Cultures/Dance in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture as well as a professor of Chicana/o Studies in the Division of Social Sciences. A native Angeleno, she rose to international acclaim for her Great Wall of Los Angeles mural. The positive impact of her research and art in local communities has led to multiple awards and honors, including a White House visit, and has cemented her own stature as a major muralist. Her murals of Kennedy serve as a monument to his cultural and historical impact; together, they form a legacy that will educate both children and adults for generations. 

Unveiling Judith Baca's RFK Mural

When the UCLA Medical Center opened in 1955, there was no doubt that expectations were high. UCLA was destined to become a new wonder of healing technology.

Flash forward 50 years to 2005. The Medical Center had grown substantially while living up to those early standards. Specifically, a cutting-edge innovation rolled into the halls in the form of the first ICU robot. RP-6, also known as RONI (short for “Robot of the Neuro ICU”), began making its rounds. 

Like other UCLA technological firsts, RONI was made with the patient in mind. With a flat screen for a face and webcam for eyes, it worked the bedsides when doctors could only be there virtually. This was more than just a convenience for doctors; it was a critical addition to providing world-class care. 

At the time, there was a nationwide shortage of intensive care physicians: fewer than 6,000 to attend to the more than 5 million patients admitted to ICUs annually. It was common practice for physicians in the neurosurgery department at UCLA to be awakened at home if their patient was experiencing an emergency at night. The doctor would then drive into the hospital, and maybe 30 minutes later, they would be at the patient’s side. 

RONI changed all of that, while maintaining a high level of information collection. Whether during an emergency event or simply making rounds, RONI allowed the doctors to carefully observe the patient. Using a joystick and computer, doctors drove around the patient’s bedside. They could see the color of the patient’s wounds, watch their breathing, and of course, connect with them face to face.

The successful use of RONI at the UCLA Medical Center opened the doors for patients around the world to benefit from this technology and the acceptance of future robotic assistance in hospitals. 

In 2005, UCLA intensive care physicians were the first to virtually consult with patients using remote controlled robots.

Robots Improve the Patient Experience

For decades, the question of what lies at the center of our galaxy was the subject of fervent scientific debate. Andrea Ghez, a UCLA professor of Physics and Astronomy, found herself orbiting around a provocative answer: a supermassive black hole. Proving this theory true wouldn’t just put an end to the arguments, it would further our knowledge of how the universe works and be remembered as one of the greatest discoveries of the century. 

But, there were a few hurdles for her to overcome first. Despite having a mass more than 2.6 million times that of our sun, the then theoretical black hole was 24,000 light years away, shrouded by space dust that blocked visible light, and by its nature, it was invisible to direct observation. 

None of this discouraged Ghez, who as a child, told her parents she wanted to walk on the moon. Instead of dissuading their daughter, her parents bought her a telescope. 

Atop the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, Ghez and colleagues set to work with a much larger lens, the W.M. Keck Telescope. The UCLA Keck facility and its advanced infrared sensors made it possible for Ghez to experiment like no one else on earth. Its large 10-meter aperture, and the use of adaptive optics to correct for atmosphere turbulence, helped the team see through the space dust and create a map of the stars in the galactic center. 

Because black holes do not allow light to escape, a clear picture of the surrounding stars would serve as crucial test points, allowing Ghez to determine the mass that cannot be observed directly. It turns out that these central stars were moving at a brisk 12,000 km/sec. This new calculation of their speed and orbits dramatically increased the acceptance of her theory. Further observations by Ghez led to an even clearer picture, making the theory a 99.99% certainty. 

Since then, Ghez has received numerous awards and honors, such as the Crafoord Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship and election into the National Academy of Sciences. She has also shared her knowledge directly with the public, through a variety of documentaries, science exhibits and lectures.   

Astronomer and UCLA professor Andrea Ghez builds on decades of observations and speculation, finally proving that there's a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Supermassive Black Hole Discovery

On April 22, 1989, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar suited up for his 1,560th and final regular season NBA game at the Forum in Inglewood. Before tip-off, coach Pat Riley, Magic Johnson and others delivered heartfelt speeches in honor of their friend, and during a musical number, the rest of the Lakers playfully rocked the 42-year-old legend in a rocking chair on the court. 

The unique ceremony was fitting for a basketball player like no other. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won more MVP awards, played in more All-Star Games and blocked more shots than any other player in NBA history. The long list of accolades accumulated during his 20-year career also includes six championship rings, Rookie of the Year, six MVP awards and 19 All-Star selections. He remains the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with 38,387 points. 

Abdul-Jabbar began his career at UCLA, leading the Bruins to three national championships. UCLA went 12–0 in the NCAA tournament during his three years with the team, and he was a three-time All American.

Impressive as his basketball resume may be, Abdul-Jabbar’s impact rises far above athletics. As a writer, cultural critic and activist, he has used his platform and intellect to shape the national conversation on race, politics and many other issues. 

He has written 15 books, including two recent memoirs: Becoming Kareem for young readers, and Coach Wooden and Me about his lifelong friendship with famed UCLA coach John Wooden. He continues to write at a prolific pace, penning op-eds for publications including the Hollywood Reporter, Time, and others. In 2019, he joined the writing staff for the Hulu television show Veronica Mars. 

In addition to writing, Abdul-Jabbar serves as the chairman of his Skyhook Foundation, whose mission is to bring educational STEM opportunities to underserved communities. In 2016, Jabbar was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. “Physically, intellectually, spiritually — Kareem is one-of-a-kind,” Obama said during the ceremony. “An American who both illuminates our most basic freedoms and our highest aspirations.” 

After making significant achievements in the NBA year after year, UCLA alum Kareem Abdul-Jabbar retires from basketball as a center for the Los Angeles Lakers. Abdul-Jabbar is still the league's all-time highest scorer and garnered a record-breaking 6 MVP awards over his career.  He led the Lakers to 5 championships in 14 years and is still regarded as one of the best NBA players of all time.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Retires from Basketball

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the UCLA Alumni Association unveiled two gifts to campus before a crowd of nearly 1,000 alumni celebrants on September 30, 1984. The first was the now iconic bronze statue known as The Bruin, which alumni were thrilled to have after years of feeling frustrated by the lack of an appropriate Bruin symbol on campus. 

At 10 feet long, six feet tall and three feet across and weighing in at more than two tons, the statue was billed as the largest bear sculpture in the United States at the time. The giant figure walking on all fours was intended to demonstrate a fluid forward movement symbolizing the ongoing strength and progress of UCLA. The statue cost $37,000 to cast and another $10,000 for artist Billy Fitzgerald’s fee.

With its ferocious look, the grizzly was a departure from UCLA’s familiar, friendly Joe Bruin mascot. “You’ll notice that it’s formidable,” Alexander Hamilton ’24, the founding member of the Alumni Association, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s the antithesis of fragility.” Ever since its installation, The Bruin has become a prominent campus landmark and gathering spot.

The second gift from the Alumni Association was “Mighty Bruins,” a new fight song composed for UCLA by Academy Award winner Bill Conti. Up to that point, UCLA had shared a fight song with UC Berkeley, with UCLA’s version being dubbed “Sons of Westwood.” Tired of listening to the same song whenever there was a touchdown at a UCLA vs. UC Berkeley game, the Association decided it was time for UCLA to have its own unique sound.

Conti, who wanted the song to stand the test of time, told the Daily Bruin, “It is not right for a top-caliber school like UCLA to be sharing a fight song, especially with the excellent athletic tradition which UCLA possesses.” 

The Alumni Association sponsored a contest soliciting lyrics from students and alumni with a $1,000 grand prize for the winning composition. In the end, Conti combined lyrics submitted by Barbara Lamb ’66 and Don Holley ’84. For the presentation of the song, Conti led the 250-member UCLA Bruin Marching Band in a rousing performance. The song made its gridiron debut as UCLA’s official fight song at the October 6 game against Stanford, with Conti again conducting the UCLA Bruin Marching Band. Ever since, the song’s “mighty Bruin roar” has resounded at all UCLA sporting events and students and fans end it with a rousing eight clap. 

The Bruin, a 10 feet long and 6 feet tall bronze statue, is installed and presented by the UCLA Alumni Association on the occasion of its 50th anniversary to the university. At the unveling of the statue, Academy Award-winning composer Bill Conti leads the 250-member UCLA Bruin Marching Band in the rousing debut of “Mighty Bruins,” a new fight song for UCLA.

The Bruin Statue is Installed, "Mighty Bruins" Debuts

Tom Bradley International Terminal opened in conjunction with the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Los Angeles International Airport had begun a $700 million expansion three years earlier in anticipation of the games. On July 8, 1982, Bruin and Mayor Tom Bradley conducted the groundbreaking for the project. Less than two years later, on June 11, 1984, the nearly million-square-foot, $123 million international terminal that took the name of the city’s first African-American mayor opened. When Bradley dedicated the five-story terminal, it was the largest airport facility in the country devoted to agriculture, customs and public health.

Bradley himself was the grandson of a slave and the son of sharecroppers from Calvert, Texas. His family moved to Los Angeles in 1924 when he was six years old. He attended Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles, where he was the first African American elected student president of the Poly Boys’ League, captain of the track team and an All-City tackle on the football team. He arrived at UCLA in 1937 on an athletic scholarship, starring as captain of the Bruin track team. Bradley began a long involvement with black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi when he joined during his time on campus. Indeed, Bradley later looked back at his time at UCLA as life-changing.  

In 1940, Bradley entered the Los Angeles Police Department academy. At the time, just 100 of the department’s 4,000 officers were African American. He worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant, then the highest an African-American officer had ever achieved. Bradley, who attended law school while a police officer, retired after 21 years of service to begin practicing law. Though, his penchant for public service meant politics would be his ultimate ambition. He ran for Los Angeles City Council in 1963 and won, becoming the first black person elected to the council, before twice being reelected. Buoyed by these successes, Bradley challenged incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty in the 1969 election and finished first in the primary. Bradley failed to win the election, but came back again to defeat Yorty in 1973. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley embodied the California dream and the American dream.

That LAX’s international terminal is named after Bradley is no mistake —Tom Bradley International Hall at UCLA is also named after the famed mayor and provides a multiculturally-oriented community space for students on campus. Bradley was at the center of the city’s successful Olympic Games and the concurrent expansion of the airport. And over his 20-year tenure as mayor, Bradley opened Los Angeles up to the Pacific Rim and helped the city forge ties with businesses in Asia. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are among the world’s busiest, as a result. In 2013, the city renovated Bradley Terminal. Now 10 million passengers per year travel through its gates.

Tom Bradley International Terminal Opens

1969 -- A landmark year for inclusion at UCLA:

Something powerful was happening throughout the nation in the late 1960s. It was the height of the civil rights movement, with demonstrators and change-seekers of all backgrounds working to have their voices heard -- and to make true progress a reality for all. On college campuses across the country, students weren’t just speaking out against racism and inequality. They were speaking up for a new approach to higher education. 

That new approach would take shape at UCLA in 1969 when the university established four independent centers of ethnic studies. The Center for Afro-American Studies (later renamed after Ralph Bunche), the Asian American Studies Center, the American Indian Studies Center, and the Chicano Studies Research Center were all founded that year as the result of faculty, students, alumni, and community advocates calling for the need to have their individual histories and cultures acknowledged, studied, and celebrated. 

Today, these four centers -- each of them inspiring models of social justice, racial progress, and academic excellence -- continue to serve UCLA students and the greater community with ongoing research, publications, events, scholarships, and outreach.

Great Strides in Ethnic Studies

In 1968, Chancellor Charles E. Young announced a program to hire more underrepresented faculty. One of the recruits was a 25-year-old scholar and outspoken activist from UC San Diego named Angela Davis. Davis joined UCLA’s philosophy department as an acting assistant professor, assigned to teach an introductory course in the fall while she finished her dissertation.

Before she taught her first class, the Daily Bruin ran an op-ed that claimed the philosophy department had hired a member of the Communist Party — without naming any names. A week later, the San Francisco Examiner ran a story naming Davis as the subject of the article, and her salary and benefits were withheld.

Davis publicly confirmed that she was a member of the Communist Party. However, citing the university’s policies protecting academic freedom — as well as her constitutional rights — she maintained that it had nothing to do with her employment at UCLA, and vowed to fight for her job in court. 

On September 19, after meeting in an extended executive session, the UC regents officially decided to fire her. Davis responded with a public statement, saying, “The sole reason they give for their intention to fire me is my membership in the Communist Party. They have not questioned my qualifications, my academic training, or my ability to teach.” 

Davis was reinstated by a California Superior Court judge, and her first lecture, on Oct. 6, 1969, was relocated to Royce Hall to accommodate more than 2,000 students and others who wanted to attend. She went on to teach three courses during the 1969-70 academic year. The regents, with support from by then Governor Ronald Reagan, then fired her again, citing “inflammatory language.” Reagan proclaimed that Davis would never again teach at the University of California. 

Many in the UCLA community stood with Davis. The Student Legislative Council pushed legislation asking all UCLA professors to withhold grades until Davis’ reinstatement. Faculty raised funds to cover her missed salary and benefits, and a group of professors filed suit against the regents. Chancellor Young took a stand on the issue as well, arguing for academic freedom as he told the regents that he would reappoint Davis.  

Davis’ return was halted by a stint in prison on a charge of accessory to murder (she was found not guilty). She went on to study the causes and effects of incarceration, and eventually returned to the University of California as a professor at UC Santa Cruz, where she taught feminist studies and the history of consciousness for more than four decades.

Davis’ fight for her job was a flashpoint of a tumultuous era, and an enduring inspiration to generations of others fighting for civil rights, gender equality and academic freedom. 

Professor Angela Davis sparks controversy at UCLA due to her radical political views. Before the Regents could fire her, over Chancellor Young’s protest, her first lecture is moved to Royce Hall to accommodate 2,000 students who wish to attend.

Angela Davis Lectures in Royce Hall

Five decades ago, a small group of computer scientists working out of a modest space in UCLA’s Boelter Hall accomplished something never before seen. They successfully created the world’s first network connection on October 29, 1969 as part of what was known as ARPANET, and thus became the first node of what would eventually become the Internet.

The team, led by the distinguished professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, on that day successfully transmitted the first message over the ARPANET from UCLA all the way to the Stanford Research Institute hundreds of miles north. In that moment, the Internet was born, and with it, an almost limitless number of possibilities for the future.

So after trillions upon trillions of sent messages over the years, what was the first Internet message? According to Kleinrock, they intended to transmit the word “LOGIN,” but the system crashed just after they had sent the first two letters. “Hence, the first message on the Internet was 'LO' — as in 'Lo and behold!',” Kleinrock said. “We didn't plan it, but we couldn't have come up with a better message: succinct, powerful and prophetic.”

The Internet's First Message Sent from UCLA

April 27, 1965 -- Martin Luther King Jr. Speaks at UCLA:

A Day of Inspiration. A Legacy of Progress. 

More than half a century ago, a crowd of 5,000 students and faculty gathered at UCLA’s Wilson Plaza to hear the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., the driving force behind the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The address came on the heels of the marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, which saw thousands of demonstrators making their voices heard in the fight for voting rights for all. In fact, only months after the UCLA speech, President Lyndon Johnson would sign the Voting Rights Act into law.  

Echoing themes from his history-making “I Have a Dream” speech at the nation’s capital in 1963, King spoke of a prosperous future in which African Americans had a greater role in shaping their own political destiny. Entitled “Segregation Must Die,” the speech at UCLA not only underscored the ongoing struggle for equality but also served as an invitation to students to get involved. “Things don’t change on their own, things don’t change by waiting for them to change; they change through actions of good people,” King told the crowd, sharing that his goal was to get 2,000 students nationwide involved in voter registration efforts in the African American community. Inspired by his words, more than 20 UCLA students would leave California that summer to participate in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) project and join the fight for integration and equality throughout the South.  

Today, a plaque at the base of Janss Steps commemorates the speech -- and a moment in time that many of those who were there still look back on as one of the most powerful speeches they would ever hear. And for current and future generations of UCLA students, King’s message of hope and reconciliation continues to live on through the university’s community outreach and African American Studies programs.

At a critical time in the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. visits UCLA and delivers a 55-minute speech at the base of Janss Steps.

Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks at UCLA

During their time at UCLA, Rafer Johnson & CK Yang were great friends. Yang, a native of Taiwan, came to UCLA in 1959, speaking almost no English. Their relationship was predicated on mutual respect and admiration. Yang was a born track star; during his time at UCLA, he broke the indoor world pole vaulting record. Johnson excelled in the throwing disciplines. They taught each other a great deal both on and off the track, and under the wings of UCLA coach Elvin “Ducky” Drake, both Johnson and Yang grew into tremendous athletes ready to compete on the global stage.

Leaving the cinder track of UCLA behind, Johnson and Yang traveled to Rome to compete in the 1960 Summer Olympics. Johnson represented the United States of America, carrying the flag in the opening ceremony. Yang competed for Taiwan, hoping to bring gold to his homeland. It was by chance that the two close friends landed in the same heat. Over the course of the ten events, Yang excelled in almost every one. But Johnson wasn’t far behind, and his dominance in the throwing events put him in a good position. Going into the final heat, the gold was Johnson’s to lose. In order to pull ahead, Yang needed to win by 10 seconds in the 1500 meter race. After nearly 5 grueling minutes, Johnson finished 1.2 seconds behind Yang, sealing his victory.

Though he won seven of the ten events, Yang took home the silver medal that year, earning Taiwan its first ever Olympic medal. Johnson stood on the podium next to his friend, having earned his gold medal through ten brutal heats. Their time at UCLA bound them together in friendship, in spite of having to compete against one another that year. CK Yang graduated from UCLA in 1964, in no small part due to Rafer Johnson helping him learn English on his arrival. In his later life, Yang split his time between Taiwan and Los Angeles, and Johnson was always the first person he called when he returned to the states until his death in 2007. When asked to recall the 1960 Olympics, Johnson first and foremost mentions how their close friendship never waned.

UCLA Teammates Face Off in Rome

In 1927, Ralph Bunche was a UCLA student about to graduate with a degree in Social Science. Two decades later, he would find himself on the world stage brokering a crucial ceasefire agreement. Graduating at the top of his class, Bunche went on to become the first African American to earn a PhD in political science from an American university. 

During World War II, Bunche became the first African American to hold a top job at the State Department and soon went into UN service, partnering with Eleanor Roosevelt to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1947, he went to the Middle East to help devise a plan for dividing Palestine between Arabs and Jews. When war broke out and the chief mediator was assassinated, Bunche took the reins and began a series of year-long negotiations, resulting in the 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and its neighbors. 

For his contributions, Bunche became the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He continued to serve at the UN for many years while actively supporting the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, the many remarkable achievements of Ralph Bunche stand as a testament and an inspiration to people of all races and colors.  

Ralph Bunche Receives the Nobel Peace Prize

At the age of 28, former UCLA student Jackie Robinson began his Major League Baseball career -- one that would span a decade and earn him countless awards and honors, including a World Series title. But one day in 1947, when Robinson first stepped out onto the field in front of more than 26,000 spectators at Ebbets Field, baseball wasn’t just about to change. Everything was.

A star athlete in high school and junior college, Robinson enrolled at UCLA, where he became the first Bruin to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track, though at the time, baseball was considered his weakest sport. After serving in the army during World War II, Robinson returned to baseball in 1945 when he joined the Negro leagues. Still, he had his eye on the majors, even though no African American had played in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker back in 1884. 

Braving an uphill battle in a sport heavily dominated by segregation and racial animus, Jackie Robinson won a spot on a minor league team before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. On April 15th, 1947, he became the first African American player in modern history to openly break the major league baseball color line. The impact would be felt for decades to come, across both the sports world and society as a whole. Retiring from baseball at the age of 37, Robinson continued to tirelessly support the growing civil rights movement across the country, prompting Martin Luther King, Jr. to call him “a legend and a symbol in his own time” who “challenged the dark skies of intolerance and frustration.”

Barriers Broken

Recalling our history can sometimes mean the need to confront a difficult past -- one that stands in stark contrast to the values we now hold dear. For members of the UCLA community, that past is drawn into sharp focus when we remember the events of 1942. The United States had just entered World War II after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, and military and political leaders feared a full-scale attack on America’s West Coast. In February of that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores. The order commanded the immediate relocation of Americans of Japanese ancestry to internment camps. Roughly 117,000 people were affected, many of whom were U.S. citizens. 

The fallout from the presidential order would be felt long after the war ended. Families lost their businesses, homes, and ultimately, their sense of belonging in a country that had once welcomed them. The relocations also derailed the lives of more than 200 UCLA students who were forced to halt their education and relocate to internment camps for the duration of the war. Some went on to earn degrees at other universities while others simply never returned to college.

Throughout the years, UCLA has grown in its commitment to equality and social justice for all, but this chapter in our university’s history stands out as a moment in which we didn’t do everything we could to pursue those ends. That recognition created an opportunity to finally make things right for these former students. Beginning in 2009, the search began for Japanese-American students who were enrolled at UCLA but never received their degree due to the relocation. A year later, ceremonies were held to award honorary degrees to these former students, signaling that as a community of scholars, thinkers, and doers, we will always seek the best in ourselves -- and each other.

Outrage on Campus

Famed German physicist Albert Einstein may have been one of the earliest globally renowned guest lecturers on UCLA’s campus. During his first visit to Southern California as a guest researcher at Caltech, the Nobel Winner was invited by members of UCLA’s chapter of the Sigma Xi scientific honors society. Einstein spoke at the Royce Hall auditorium to a packed audience of 2,200 students and faculty, about one third of the entire university population at the time. With the assistance of a translator, he lectured on his theory of general relativity as well as the impact of gravitational and electric fields on current scientific scholarship. 

“Science is seeking a system which will bind together the observed facts to make for the greatest simplicity,” Einstein proclaimed, touching on what would become a decades-long quest to explain the singular interrelationship between the fundamental forces of nature. This would be called the unified field theory, and it remains unsolved today. 

Just over a decade into UCLA’s founding as an institution, Einstein’s visit stirred a shift in the zeitgeist and kickstarted a celebrated pursuit of scientific innovation at UCLA that has become unwavering, deeply imaginative and global in scale. Today, this spirit lives on in students within the sciences who collaborate with one another and the community at large to advance further into the unknown and imagine bold, new futures.

Royce Hall Hosts Albert Einstein

Bruins who arrived on campus early on the morning of January 15, 1932, were surprised to find that UCLA had been unexpectedly blanketed with snow. Two inches of cottony fluff covered the Royce Quad and patches of white iced the tops of the surrounding redbrick buildings, shrubs and trees. As snowball fights and snowman building ensued, some professors officially dismissed class and joined in on the fun. Others tried to maintain a semblance of order, but their efforts were met with exuberant resistance.  

Despite all the shenanigans, the administration was understanding since this was the first time in history that it had snowed on campus. The snowball showdown went on for three hours until around 11 a.m., when the sun came out and melted most of the snow — and normal campus life resumed. A handful of images survive as evidence of this truly rare occurrence. It did not happen again until January 1949. 

The first snowfall in history on UCLA’s proves a happy surprise for students and faculty.

A New Name and a New Mascot

Join our email list and stay connected to the centennial celebration.