Though not a student, revered author Ray Bradbury seeks refuge from the commotion of his home life in the basement of Powell Library in 1950. He spends $9.80 to finish the 25,000-word short story, originally titled The Fireman, that later becomes his celebrated literary classic, Fahrenheit 451.

After Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 tears Japanese American students away from UCLA, members of the faculty protest the injustice alongside students. The affected students aren't granted honorary degrees until almost 70 years later in 2010.

UCLA alumnus Ralph Bunche, valedictorian of the Class of 1927, becomes the first African American to receive a Nobel Prize. He is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his work mediating the 1949 Armistice Agreements, which established a truce between Israel and neighboring countries of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.