Baylor Arts & Sciences

By Randy Fiedler When a ship filled with ammonium nitrate caught fire in the port at Texas City on April 16, 1947, the resulting chain reaction of explosions and fires created the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, with a total of 581 people killed. Though the accident took place hundreds of miles from Waco, [...]

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By Randy Fiedler On April 9, 1978, Baylor senior political science major John Smith broke the Guinness World Record for table tennis play by an individual against several opponents by completing 125 hours, which broke the previous record of 122 hours. The Chi Alpha member had used no stimulants during the contest, and survived a [...]

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On April 6, 1905, Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to visit Waco. More than 20,000 Wacoans showed up to welcome the President to town. Baylor students were granted a half-day holiday from classes and provided with prime reserved seating to hear Roosevelt’s speech in Katy Park, Waco’s downtown baseball stadium. “Mr. Roosevelt is [...]

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By Randy Fiedler The Baylor family mourned on March 20, 1901, when Professor John S. Tanner died at age 31. Tanner had joined the faculty in 1896 to direct studies in Greek, Hebrew, the life of Jesus and the acts of the apostles. President Oscar Cooper also gave him charge of the Department of Philosophy, [...]

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By Randy Fiedler It once took a little creative thinking to slip around the ban on dancing at Baylor. In the spring of 1977, when on-campus dances were in their 132nd year of prohibition, students sought to publicize a few non-credit classes being offered by Baylor’s Free University program — including two dance classes. However, [...]

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By Randy Fiedler The inauguration of Calvin Coolidge on March 4, 1925, was the first time an American presidential inauguration had been broadcast nationally by radio, which was still in its early stages. That day, someone at Baylor installed a loudspeaker attached to a radio receiver on a tree outside the Carroll Science Building so [...]

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By Randy Fiedler Van Cliburn, one of the 20th century’s greatest pianists, died this morning at his home near Fort Worth. The 78-year-old Cliburn had been suffering from advanced bone cancer. Cliburn was born July 12, 1934, in Shreveport, La., and began taking piano lessons at age three from his mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn. [...]

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By Randy Fiedler On Feb. 27, 2006, Baylor alumnus Roxanne Wilson made her television debut as a contestant on the fifth season of Donald Trump’s popular NBC reality show “The Apprentice.” While at Baylor, Wilson became the first woman to successfully pledge the Baylor Chamber of Commerce in its 76-year history, and later was chosen [...]

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By Randy Fiedler With many potential players still overseas serving in the world war, the under-manned 1944-45 Baylor basketball team faced an apparently insurmountable challenge. On Feb. 21, 1945, the Bears lost to TCU 55-25, ending the only winless season in Baylor basketball history (0-17; 0-12 in conference). Just how depressing was that 1944-45 season? [...]

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By Randy Fiedler On Valentine’s Day 1921, Baylor University welcomed Rabinadrath Tagore, the acclaimed Hindu poet, seer, dramatist, essayist and short story writer, to campus. Tagore was born to wealthy parents in Calcutta, India, in 1861. By age eight he was writing poetry, and he had released his first substantial poems at age 16. In [...]

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