Top 5 Most Obscure (But Interesting!) Historical Facts About Dartmouth

1. Unsurprisingly, a Dartmouth alum, Robert Smith, Class of 1902, was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, which now helps more than two million recovering alcoholics in 134 countries.
2. Amos Tuck, Class of 1835, founded the original GOP, organizing its first meeting at Major Blake's Tavern in Exeter, N.H. on Oct. 12, 1853.
3. Dartmouth became the first college in the nation to institute selective admissions after a 1920 National Geographic article about the Dartmouth Outing Club caused application numbers to soar from 825 to 2,625, forcing the College to admit students based on factors like interests and academic capacity.
4. In 1993, Reese Schonfeld '53 and Trygve Myrhen '58, Tu '59 founded the Food Network, which would grow to become one of the most popular networks on television across all demographics.
5. Dartmouth students began the nationwide trend of wearing shorts for both comfort and fashion in 1930 after (self -call) a series of editorials were published by The Dartmouth pleading for "freedom of the knees."

Information courtesy of the April 1994 issue of Dartmouth Alumni Magazine