September 8, 1636 - Harvard College Founded

The Puritans in the Massachusetts colony understood the need to train ministers for the Gospel in their new colony. Because of this, on September 8, 1636, they founded Harvard College, named for a prominent English minister who came to America to lead the school. The founders took John 17:3 as their guiding verse which states, “And this is life eternal, that they know Thee to be the only very God and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent” (from the Geneva Bible).