April

Theodore J. Kaczynski '62, a mathematics concentrator from Eliot House, is taken into custody on suspicion of being the elusive Unabomber. Kaczynski later pleads guilty to the charges.

Currier House seniors Stephen V. David '96 and William A. Blankenship '96 are arrested on charges Possession of drugs with intent to distribute after an HUPD search team recovers ecstasy, LSD, marijuana and other illegal drugs. The students are not allowed to graduate. Students rally outside University Hall in support of expanded ethnic studies offerings.

The Undergraduate Council holds first popular elections for president and vice president. Robert M. Hyman '98 and Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 are elected president and vice president.

Responding to criticism from student activists at Harvard and across the country, PepsiCo announces it will sell its 40 percent stake in a joint venture in Burma, which has a military regime notorious for human rights abuses.

September

U.S. News & World Report ranks Harvard third after six years in the top spot, bruising egos and putting a damper on traditional cries of "safety school" during the year's Harvard-Yale Game. Students spend the academic year denying the validity of such rankings but seem pleased when the College returns to the top of the charts the next year.

October

Head of the Charles regatta is cancelled for the first time in 32 years due to heavy rains and wind.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a member of the class of 1977, and Microsoft executive vice president Steven A. Ballmer '77 donate $25 million for a new building and a professorship in computer science and electrical engineering. The building, named Maxwell Dworkin for the donors' mothers, is scheduled for completion this summer.

November

Massachusetts Governor William F. Weld '66 loses a highly contested Senate race to incumbent John F. Kerry (D-Mass.).

December

Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 elected president of the Undergraduate Council. She is the first woman to hold the post. 1997

January