Yale College admits 2,186 of 10,937 applicants, an admission rate of 20.0 percent.  Including, tuition, room, and board, the full cost of a year at Yale College is $15,020.

The US Department of Defense announces that it will begin screening recruits for AIDS and that it will reject those who test positive.

Rock Hudson, an actor well-known for his work in film and television, discloses that he has AIDS.  President Ronald Reagan, who has yet to utter the word “AIDS” in a public statement, calls Hudson at the hospital to wish him well.  Hudson dies less than a year after his announcement; American media coverage of AIDS increases fourfold.

Scientists demonstrate that transmission of AIDS can be blocked by a condom during sexual intercourse.

Ryan White, a thirteen-year-old who contracted AIDS in the course of receiving treatment for hemophilia, is barred from attending classes at his middle school in Kokomo, Indiana.

By year’s end, a total of 15,527 cases and 12,529 deaths have been reported in the United States.  Additionally, cases of AIDS have been reported in 51 countries across six continents.

Mark Dallas Butler begins working at the Registrar’s office of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York.

Frank Moore wins a Bessie award for outstanding creative acheivement for Beehive, a film he made with Jim Self. That year, the film is shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Public Theater, and the Cinemateque Francaise, Paris, France.

Hugh Steers joins the Yale Col­lege Class of 1985 a mem­ber of Jonathan Edwards College.

Richard Umans dies on February 11.

Ronald Reagan, during a speech before the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, addresses Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, saying, “Tear down this wall!”

An editorial written by a New Haven resident appears in the Wall Street Journal exploring Yale’s reputation as a “gay school.” University president Benno Schmidt responds with a three-page letter to concerned alumni fundraisers, dismissing the article—which asserted that as much as twenty-five percent of the student body is gay—as “journalistic drivel” and ’’an extremely misleading picture of the student body.” Today, Yale retains its reputation as the “Gay Ivy,” while the “one in four” statistic continues to have currency among undergraduates.

Lesbian and Gay Studies Center established by a committee of faculty and staff chaired by Professor John Boswell .

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves azidothymidine (AZT), the first and only antiretroviral drug designed to treat AIDS.  Though Congress approves $30 million in emergency state funding for AZT, it remains the most expensive drug in history with a cost of $10,000/year/patient.  Burroughs Wellcome, the drug’s manufacturer, will maintain a monopoly of AZT until 2004.

Larry Kramer (YC ’57), establishes the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in New York City.

Renowned pianist and vocalist Liberace dies of AIDS-related complications.

Journalist Randy Shilts publishes And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, chronicling the spread of the syndrome as the result of general indifference toward those whom it affected.  Shilts, who had been diagnosed with AIDS while writing the book, will die of AIDS-related complications in 1994.

The US Congress passes the Helms Amendment, which bans the use of federal money to “promote or encourage, directly or indirectly, homosexual activities.”

By year’s end, a total of 50,378 cases and 40,849 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Warren Smith dies in Union City, New Jersey at the age of 35.

José Vigo dies in February.

In August, Jack Winkler was diagnosed with AIDS; he announced a two-year sabbatical. 

Mark Dallas Butler begins a doctoral program at University of Pennsylvania in art history.

Jim Brudner’s identical twin, Eric, a talented jazz musician and composer, dies of of AIDS-related illness.

Charles Ludlam receives his fourth Village Voice Obie Award for distinguished achievement in Theater. After just knowing for three months of his status, he dies on May 29.

James Snead publishes Figures of Division, an analy­sis of race and lan­guage in the nov­els of William Faulkner.

Michael Palm begins working at Berkshire Hathaway with his business partner Steven Gluckstern.

David Springer joins Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he represents major corporations including WorldCom and Kmart and eventually becomes a partner.

Harry Kondoleon is diagnosed with AIDS.

Terence Beirn joins the staff of the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after taking off on its tenth mission to outer space.  All nine crewmembers, including school teacher Christa McAuliffe, are killed.

The Iran-Contra scandal breaks, revealing that senior officials in the Reagan administration conspired to arrange the illegal sale of arms to Iran in the hopes of securing the release of American hostages held there, while diverting proceeds of the sales to anticommunist rebels in Nicaragua.

Following the retirement of A. Bartlett Giamatti, Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. is named president of Yale University. Schmidt, a graduate of both Yale College and Yale Law School, leaves his job as Dean of Columbia Law School to take over as President of Yale. While president-elect, Schmidt adds the category of sexual orientation to the university’s non-discrimination policy.

Ella Fitzgerald receives an honorary doctorate at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) publishes a report criticizing the US government’s handling of the “national health crisis” and calling for a $2 billion investment in AIDS research and prevention.

President Ronald Reagan first mentions AIDS in a public address, in which he says that his administration is committed to finding a cure for the syndrome. Reagan’s budget for the same year calls for both a $10 million reduction in the Public Health Service’s (PHS) AIDS efforts and further cuts to Medicaid.

The PHS includes AIDS on its list of “dangerous contagious diseases,” restricting entry of PWAs into the United States and enabling immigration authorities to detain PWAs attempting to enter the country. The PHS will later mandate testing for all visa applicants.

Fashion designer Perry Ellis dies of an AIDS-related illness.

Activist Cleve Jones creates the first panel—dedicated to his friend Marvin Feldman— of what will become the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

By year’s end, a total of 28,712 cases and 24,559 deaths have been reported in the United States. 

Julian Bingham Abbott is born on February 15 in Cleveland, OH.

Leonard Raver is born in Wenatchee, WA.

Robert Hoskins is born in Cincinatti, OH on August 3.

Jose Moscoso (J.D. ’65) is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

David Brudnoy ’62 was born on June 5 in Minneapolis, MN.

Nate Marinuzzi is born in Northford, Connecticut.

Lawrence Jacobs is born in Detroit, MI.

Jack Winkler is born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Charles Ludlam was born on April 12 and raised in Northport, L.I.

James Terrell is born in Richmond, VA.

Dan Fried­man was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Michael Barnett was born on November 28 in New York, NY

John Anton Tardino, Jr is born in Merrick, New York.

John Boswell is born on March 20 in Boston.

Richard Stanton Umans ’69 was born on September 13 in Cambridge, MA

Robert Walden ’72 is born in New Rochelle, NY on May 16.

Robert Endo ’70 is born in Los Angeles, CA.

Jorge Enrique Garcia Rodriguez ’70 is born on August 22 in Havana, Cuba.

Peter Schifter is born in Cranbury, NJ.

Douglass Dean Smith is born on May 11 in Chicago, Illinois.

Jose Vigo is born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Stan War­ren Ziegler ’72 was born on Sep­tem­ber 29.

Michael Palm is born in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Warren Smith is born in Chicago on April 15.

Terence Beirn is born in New York City.

David E. Springer (BA ’74 JD ‘77) iss born in Evanston, IL on January 20.

Frank Moore is born in Manhattan.

Scot Kevin Haller is born on September 29 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Harry Kondoleon was born in Queens, NY.

Christopher Kales is born on April 26 in Chicago, IL.

Timothy Lenahan is born in Bryn Mawr, PA on July 1.

John Wallace was born on June 1.

Robert Hoskins graduates from Yale with a degree in political science.

Jack Winkler began studying at St. Louis University.

Jose Moscoso earns his BA from Harvard University.

A second early documented HIV-1 infection was discovered in a preserved lymph node biopsy sample taken in 1960 from a woman from Leopoldville, Belgian Congo.

1960 is also known as the “Year of Africa”.

Jim Brudner is born in Queens, New York;

Derek Anson Jones is born on February 24 in Washington, D.C..

Jorge Enrique Garcia Rodriguez and his family move to Milo, Maine so that his parents can begin practicing medicine in the United States.

Hugh Steers is born in Washington, D.C..

Jack Winkler graduates from St. Louis University. Upon graduating, he joined the Benedictine religious order, living first at St. Lawrence’s Abbey in Ampleforth, England, and then continuing at the St. Louis priory.

Michael Barnett begins attending Yale as a member of Jonathan Edwards College.

Imme­di­ately after receiv­ing his BA in Eco­nom­ics, Nate Marinuzzi mar­ries Eleanor Hugo, a librar­ian at Ster­ling Memo­r­ial Library whom he had dated as an under­grad­u­ate.

Charles Ludlam graduates from Hofstra University, where he majored in dramatic literature.

Richard Umans, a member of Timothy Dwight, graduates from Yale with a degree in Art History.

Jose Moscoso graduates from Yale Law School.

John Tardino travels with the Spizzwinks(?) to Venezuela and tours universities and hotels with the help of the U.S. government and Creole Oil.

Robert Endo graduates from Dayton Heights High School, where he was Senior Class President.

Douglass Dean Smith graduates from the Latin School of Chicago.

Jorge Enrique Garcia Rodriguez graduates from Milo High School in Maine.

The United States Supreme Court rules, in Loving v. Virginia, that all U.S. state laws banning interracial marriage are unconstitutional.

Paul Monette graduates from Yale.

Michael Barnett graduates from Yale with a degree in Marine Biology.

Charles Ludlam joins the Theater Company “Playhouse of the Ridiculous.”

John Tardino auditions and is selected to act in a mobile theater program funded by Urban Corps, a federal program to give students summer jobs in New York City. Later that year, he is selected for the Whiffenpoofs.

Tim Dlugos joins the Christian Brothers, a Catholic religious order, and enrolls at LaSalle College.

Robert Hoskins earns his M.Ed from the University of Cincinnati.

John Tardino begins his two-year fellowship with the Yale-in-China Association.

James Terrell earns his Master’s from the Yale School of Architecture.

John Boswell graduates from The College of William and Mary.

Dan Friedman returns to the United States after studying modernist graphic design in Basel.

Richard Umans graduates from Yale with a Bachelor’s in art history.

The first women enter Yale College.

The Homosexuality Discussion Group—Yale’s first gay student organization—is founded.

Frank Moore attends the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Dan Friedman begins a three-year professorship at Yale, while also teaching at the State University College at Purchase, N.Y. and at Cooper Union.

Peter Schifter earns his BA in Theater Ohio University.

Robert Endo, Douglass Dean Smith and Jorge Enrique Garcia-Rodriguez graduate from Yale.

May 4, 1970: Four students are killed and nine others wounded when National Guard troops open fire on a crowd of unarmed protestors on the campus of Kent State University.  The escalation of the Vietnam War—now in its fourteenth year—is the focus of student demonstration around the country.

Various members of the Black Panther Party are tried in New Haven for the murder of a suspected FBI informant. In anticipation of massive demonstrations and civil unrest, President Nixon mobilizes thousands of National Guardsmen. Bombs are detonated at Ingalls Hockey Rink. Vice President Spiro Agnew calls for the resignation of university president Kingman Brewster for Brewster’s publicly expressing doubts about the Panthers’ ability to receive a fair trial.

Yale’s first Women’s Studies class—“Women in a Male Society”—is taught.

The first female deans are appointed to Saybrook and Morse Colleges.

James Snead graduates from Phillips Exeter Academy.

David Brudnoy begins his career in broadcast commentary and journalism.

Hanna Gray and Marian Wright Edelman are appointed to the Yale Corporation. They are the first women to sit on the university’s highest governing body.

Katherine Lustman is appointed master of Davenport College. She is the first woman to be master of a residential college.

The Homosexuality discussion group renames itself the Gay Alliance at Yale (GAY).

Partners Café opens.

The Yale School of Architecture is established.

In advance of a visit by Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State, William P. Rogers, Yale president Kingman Brewster—a vocal critic of the Vietnam War— publishes an editorial on the front page of the Yale Daily News affirming the university’s commitment to freedom of speech and asking antiwar protestors to respect Rogers’ presence on campus.

Robert Walden, a member of Branford College, graduates from Yale with a degree in Anthropology.

Nate Marinuzzi meets Har­ri­son Cromer, who will be his part­ner for the next sev­en­teen years.

Eustace Theodore and Rosalyn Regelson teach Yale’s first gay-themed course, “Homosexuality in Contemporary America” as a Calhoun College Seminar.

Yale Divinity School Gay-Straight Coalition is founded.

The first-ever coed class graduates from Yale College.

Michael Palm graduates from Yale College.

War­ren Smith grad­u­ates from Yale in January and then trav­els to Ebersberg, out­side Munich, for a three-month fel­low­ship from the Goethe Insti­tut to study Ger­man.

David Springer graduates from Yale.

Terence Beirn graduates from Yale and pursues a career in broadcast journalism in San Francisco.

Jack Winkler earns his PhD from The University of Texas.

John Tardino graduates from the University of Buffalo Medical School.

John Boswell completes his doctorate in History at Harvard University, and moves to New Haven to begin teaching at Yale.

Nate Marinuzzi moves to San Francisco with his partner Harrison Cromer.

Frank Moore graduates from Yale with degrees in Art and Psychology.

Douglass Dean Smith and Richard Arnold ’70 attend their five year reunion with their respective “trophy spouses” in tow.

Jorge Enrique Garcia Rodriguez pursues a career in publishing.

April 4, 1975: Harvard dropout Bill Gates founds a company known as “Micro-soft.”

April 30, 1975: The People’s Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front capture Saigon, the capital city of South Vietnam, resulting in the end of the Vietnam War and the unification of Vietnam as a Communist state.

Christopher Kales ranks eighth among senior men during a national competition held by the United States Figure Skating Association.

James Snead graduates from Yale with a degree in English.

Lawrence Jacobs graduates from the Yale School of Architecture.

Between 1977 and 1979, Frank Moore studies at the Cité Inter­na­tionale des Arts in Paris, sup­port­ing him­self by teach­ing Eng­lish to Mus­lim youth.

David Springer graduates from Yale Law School.

Leonard Raver joins the New York Philharmonic.

Warren Smith graduates from Harvard, and begins working for Debevoise, Plimp­ton, Lyons & Gates (now Debevoise & Plimp­ton).

Jack Winkler is the sole faculty member to help organize Yale’s first Gay Rights Week.

Lawrence Jacobs earns an Architecture Record House Award. He also begins his own architectural firm in Manhattan.

Harry Kondoleon graduates from Hamilton College.

Yale Women’s Center established.

The Yale Center for British Art opens its doors.

The Whitney Humanities Center is established.

JD McClatchy teaches “Homosexuality and Literature” (later renamed “The Literature of Ambivalence”) for the first time.

A. Bartlett Giamatti is named by the Yale Corporation as the university’s nineteenth president. Giamatti, who received both his B.A. and his Ph.D. from Yale, is a member of the comparative literature department and former master of Ezra Stiles College.

Philip Johnson receives an honorary doctorate at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

Jose Vigo graduates from Hunter College with a degree in Language and Culture Studies.

Women’s Studies program established.

Mikhail Baryshnikov receives an honorary doctorate at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

Jim Brudner and his twin brother Eric graduate from Stuyvesant High School in New York.

Jack Winkler leaves Yale for Stanford, where he continued to be a leading voice for gay students and faculty.

Harry Kondoleon enters Yale School of Drama.

Dan Friedman begins holding a senior designer position at Pentagram, where he works for four years.

John Boswell publishes his landmark study Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality.

Timothy Lenahan receives his BA in architecture from Yale.

James Snead completes his PhD in English at St. John’s College, Cambridge.

José Vigo receives his master’s degree in anthropology from Yale.

James Terrell becomes a founding partner of Hambrecht Terrell International.

Following a series of minor earthquakes, Mount. St. Helens erupts in Washington State sending a column of smoke and ash 80,000 feet into the atmosphere and scattering debris through 11 states.  The eruption causes the deaths of fifty-seven people and over a billion dollars in property damage.

Ronald Reagan is elected President.

John Lennon is assassinated in New York City by Mark David Chapman.

Yale Gay and Lesbian Cooperative founded.

Yale College admits 2,481 of 9,387 applicants, an admission rate of 26.4 percent.  Including tuition, room, and board, the full cost of a year at Yale College is $9,110.

Harry Kondoleon graduates from the Yale School of Drama.

Christopher Kales temporarily withdraws from Rush Medical College to perform with the Theater Ballet of Canada in Ottawa.

David Brudnoy begins working for WGBH-TV in Boston, where he stays for five years.

Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed the first-ever female Justice of the Supreme Court.

Women’s Studies approved as a major in Yale College.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) first reports on a rare form of pneumonia known as PCP (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia) among a small group of young gay men in Los Angeles.  Reports of similar cases quickly flood the CDC.

Soon after its publication of the first the report concerning PCP in gay men, the CDC receives additional reports of an aggressive form of cancer known as Kaposi’s sarcoma among gay men in New York and California.  Kaposi’s sarcoma, which typically affects a minute fraction of men under 50, quickly becomes known as the “gay cancer.”

Following the first reports of AIDS cases, Dr. Mathilde Krim, an internist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, is one of the first scientists to comment on the disease’s potential socio-political consequences.  Two years later, Krim founds the AIDS Medical Foundation to support private research efforts.

The New York Times first reports on a “rare cancer” affecting gay men.  Subsequently, media reports on cancer affecting gay men attempt to draw connections between they gay lifestyle and the transmission of the disease.

By year’s end, a total of 159 cases of the disease are reported in the United States.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Bearing the names of the 58,272 men and 8 women who died in the conflict, the wall of polished gabbro stone is added to the National Register of Historic Places on the same day.

GALA—Yale’s Gay and Lesbian Alumni association—is founded.

Gay and Lesbian Cooperative sponsors the first annual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Days.

James Earl Jones and Benny Goodman receive honorary degrees at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

The CDC identifies outbreaks of PCP and Kaposi’s sarcoma as resulting from an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.  “AIDS” replaces earlier names for the syndrome, which included AID (Acquired Immune Deficiency), CAID (Community Acquired Immune Deficiency), and GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency).

Shortly after the CDC declares AIDS an epidemic, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) is founded in New York City.  At first an entirely volunteer organization, the GMHC dedicates itself to providing services to PWAs and establishes itself as a major advocate for research to combat the disease.

By year’s end, a total of 771 cases and 618 deaths have been reported in the United States.

John Boswell is made a full professor at Yale.

José Vigo spends 1982 and 1983 conducting field research in Samaná, in the Dominican Republic.

John Wallace graduates from Yale with a degree in American Studies.

Dan Friedman designs Keith Haring’s book of essays and photographs.

United States military forces invade the island nation of Grenada in order to oust the revolutionary regime in favor of a constitutional government.

A ward dedicated entirely to treating AIDS patients at San Francisco General Hospital is fully occupied within days of its opening.

GMHC co-founder Larry Kramer (YC ’57) publishes an article in the New York Native entitled “1,112 and Counting.”  Highlighting the seeming powerlessness of the government and medical community in the face of a rapidly growing epidemic, Kramer calls for “anger, rage, fury, and action” in the gay community.  “Our continued existence,” he writes, “depends on just how angry you can get.”

The People With AIDS self-empowerment movement is established during the National Lesbian/Gay Health Conference in Denver, Colorado.  Rejecting the labels of “victim” and “patient,” a group of activists drafts the “Denver Principles,” which outline recommendations to people without AIDS, advice to healthcare providers, and a list of rights for People With AIDS (PWA).

Lambda Legal and the GMHC file the first-ever AIDS discrimination lawsuit when Dr. Joseph Sonnabend’s New York-based practice specializing in the treatment of AIDS patients is threatened with eviction from its building.

The CDC first identifies female sexual partners of men with AIDS as an “at risk” category.

By year’s end, a total of 2,807 cases and 2,118 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Mark Dallas Butler graduates from Yale with a degree in Art History.

Hugh Steers studies painting abroad in France and Italy with the Parsons School of Art and Design

Harry Kondoleon wins an Obie Award for Most Promising Young Playwright.

Nate Marinuzzi moves from San Francisco to Hartford where he will live for the rest of his life.

Jim Brudner graduates from Yale with a degree in American Studies.

Charles Ludlam plays the titular role in the American Ibsen Theater production of “Hedda Gabler” in Pittsburgh, PA.

Robert Hoskins dies on December 23. He was 46 years old.

Jose Moscoso begins work for the law offices of Baker & McKenzie in Manhattan.

Timothy Lenahan receives earns his M.Arch from Yale School of Architecture and begins working for Robert A.M. Stern in Manhattan.

Christopher Kales earns his MD and begins practicing medicine as a general physician in New York City.

Ronald Reagan is re-elected President.

Bayard Rustin is arrested for his participation in a labor strike at Yale.

First-ever GALA advertisement in the Yale Alumni Magazine causes alumni outcry.

Scientists determine that AIDS is caused by a previously unknown retrovirus, later named the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Writing for the National Review, William F. Buckley, Jr. (YC ’50) states, “Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed on the upper forearm, to protect common needle-users, and on the buttocks to prevent the victimization of other homosexuals.”

Municipal authorities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York order the closing of bathhouses as venues for high-risk sexual activity.

In conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) host the first international conference on AIDS in Atlanta, Georgia.

By year’s end, a total of 7,239 cases and 5,596 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Tim Dlugos enters the Yale Divinity School

Paul Monette publishes Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir following the death of his partner, Roger Horwitz.

John Boswell publishes The Kindness of Strangers: Child Abandonment in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance.

Michael Palm founds Center Re, the first reinsurance company, with Steven Gluckstern.

Douglass Dean Smith dies in June at the age of 39.

Michael Barnett dies on December 21 at the age of 43.

George H.W. Bush (YC ’48) defeats Michael Dukakis to become the 41st President of the United States.

Days after an ACT UP action at FDA headquarters, the FDA announces new regulations streamlining the approval process for drugs designed to treat AIDS.

Ryan White, now at age 17 a national spokesman for AIDS education, testifies before the President’s Commission on AIDS.

The nation’s first needle exchange program is established in Tacoma, WA. Similar programs are soon established with government funding in New York and San Francisco.

By year’s end, a total of 82,362 cases and 61,816 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Hugh Steers has his first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C..

Peter Schifter earns a Tony Award nomination for his work on the musical “Welcome to the Club.”

Due to declining health, Tim Dlugos leaves the Yale Divinity School.

Nate Marinuzzi attends his 25th Reunion at Yale; three months later, he dies from AIDS-related illnesses.

James Snead dies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

James Terrell M.Arch ’68 dies at the age of 45.

Jorge Enrique Garcia Rodriguez dies at the age of 41.

British computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee, an employee at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), writes a proposal for an information management system known as the “World Wide Web.”

The Berlin Wall—having stood for nearly thirty years as a symbol of the sharp divisions of the Cold War— is opened. Thousands of East Berliners stream westward and the process of German reunification begins.

Renowned photographer Robert Mapplethorpe dies of an AIDS-related illness.

Members of ACT UP infiltrate the New York Stock Exchange where they stage a protest against Burroughs Wellcome, the sole manufacturer of AZT.  Days later, the annual cost per patient of AZT drops 20 percent.

The US Congress creates the National Commission on AIDS.

By year’s end, a total of 117,508 cases and 89,343 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Jim Brudner publishes an Op-Ed in The New York Times,  ‘AIDS activism is good for research,’ explain­ing the sci­ence behind the then cur­rent AIDS research.

John Boswell serves as chair of the History department until 1992.

John Wallace dies of AIDS-related causes on February 28. He was 29 years old.

Jack Winkler passes away on April 25 in Palo Alto.

Scot Kevin Haller dies on June 24 in "Los Angeles:L#LosAngelesCalifornia.

Tim Dlugos dies on December 3.

Julian Bingham Abbott dies at the age of 64.

Yale College admits 2,269 of 12,528 applicants, an admission rate of 18.1 percent.  Including tuition, room, and board, the full cost of a year at Yale College is $20,820.

The Hubble Space Telescope is launched.  It remains in use today.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein orders the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, triggering the Persian Gulf War.  The conflict will cost coalition forces upwards of sixty billion dollars and leave Hussein in control of Iraq.

Hugh Steers studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.

Leonard Raver dies at the age of 39 from AIDS-related brain cancer.

Lawrence Jacobs dies on March 21 at the age of 39.

One day after the resignation of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union is formally dissolved. The event marks the end both to the world’s first and largest Communist state and to the Cold War itself.

Professional basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive.

Queen front man Freddie Mercury dies of an AIDS related illness.

By year’s end, a total of 206,563 cases and 156,143 deaths have been reported in the United States.  In the same year, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates at 110 million people are infected with AIDS worldwide.

Paul Monette publishes his memoir Becoming a Man, which wins the 1992 National Book Award for non-fiction.

Frank Moore designs a poster for Day Without Art, produced by Visual AIDS.

Leonard Raver dies of AIDS on January 29 at the age of 62.

Christopher Kales dies on January 23 at NYU Medical Center. He was 36 years old.

Four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King are acquitted. In response, rioting overtakes much of south central Los Angeles, resulting in fifty-three dead and more than two thousand injured.

Democrat Bill Clinton (YLS ’73) defeats incumbent George H.W. Bush (YC ’48) in the presidential election.

Mary Fisher and Elizabeth Glaser—both HIV-positive—address the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, respectively.

Florida teenager Ricky Ray dies of an AIDS-related illness.  Ricky and his two brothers, Robert and Randy (both HIV-positive), had become the focus of national media attention in 1987 when their home was burned down following their victory in a court battle to attend their public school.

Actor Anthony Perkins dies of an AIDS-related illness.

Professional tennis player Arthur Ashe announces publicly that he is HIV-positive.  Ashe will die of a related illness in 1993.

Fashion icon Tina Chow dies of an AIDS-related illness.

AIDS is identified as the number one cause of death in American men, ages 25-44.

By year’s end, a total of 254,157 cases and 194,476 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Michael Palm retires from his company Center Re, devoting himself fully to philanthropy.

Peter Schifter dies at Lenox Hospital in Manhattan.

Mere months before com­plet­ing his doc­tor­ate, Mark Dallas Butler dies on January 6.

President Bill Clinton signs “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into law, prohibiting openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons from serving in the U.S. military.

Terrorists detonate a bomb in a subterranean parking lot beneath the World Trade Center in New York City.  Six are killed and more than one thousand injured.

Richard C. Levin is appointed president of the university.  A Stanford-trained economist with a Ph.D. from Yale, Levin will step down as president in the summer of 2013.

The Women’s Table, commemorating the presence of women at the university, is installed in front of Sterling Memorial Library.  The designer is Yale College graduate Maya Lin, who gained national fame in 1981 with her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Arthur Ashe receives an honorary doctorate at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

President Bill Clinton (YLS ’73), creates a White House Office of National AIDS Policy.  In the same year, President Clinton signs an AIDS immigration exclusion policy into law.

Dancer Rudolf Nureyev dies of an AIDS-related illness.

Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, becomes one of the first mainstream films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS.  Hanks wins an Academy Award for Best Actor his portrayal of an HIV-positive gay man.

Tony Kushner receives both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize for his play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.

By year’s end, a total of 360,909 cases and 234,225 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Dan Friedman publishes Radical Modernism, exploring the “constraints of orthodox modernism and the jargon and anarchy of postmodernism.”

David Brudnoy reveals publicly during his radio show that he is gay and has AIDS following a vicious battle with viral pneumonia.

John Boswell dies on December 24th at the age of 47.

Robert Endo dies in Paris. He was 46 years old.

Harry Kondoleon dies at the age of 39.

Jose Moscoso dies at his family’s home in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 53.

Two years after his death, the Timothy Egan Lenahan Memorial Fund is established to support the teaching of landscape and architectural design.

AIDS is identified as the leading cause of death among all Americans, ages 25-44.

HHS issues directives to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for increasing clinical AIDS research attention to women and minorities.

Pedro Zamora dies of an AIDS-related illness shortly after his appearance as an openly-gay character on MTV’s Real World.

By year’s end, a total of 441,528 cases and 270,870 deaths have been reported in the United States.

An article in the undergraduate magazine The New Journal proposes a monument to the members of the Yale community who have died in the AIDS epidemic.

Yale College admits 2,372 of 10,794 applicants, an admission rate of 22.2 percent.  Including tuition, room, and board, a year at Yale College costs $26,350.

AIDS-related deaths reach an all time high as AIDS remains the leading cause of death among all Americans, ages 25-44.

Rapper Eric Wright (a k a Eazy-E of NWA) dies of an AIDS-related illness.

President Bill Clinton (YLS ’73) forms the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS; the first White House Conference on HIV/AIDS is held.

Diver and Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis reveals that he is HIV-positive.

From 1991 to 1995, the number of American women diagnosed with AIDS increases by more than 60 percent.

By year’s end, a total of 513,486 cases and 319,849 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Paul Monette dies at the age of 49.

Hugh Steers dies on March 1 at the age of 32.

Dan Friedman dies on July 7 St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan.

Michael Palm’s foundation awards a $2.5 million capital gift to Gay Men’s Health Crisis to establish the organization’s headquarters in New York.

David Springer, while working with Lambda, represents Jamie Nabozny, a Wisconsin man who sued his high school district for its negligence during anti-gay harassment.

David Brudnoy receives an honorary doctorate from Emerson College. Later that year, he publishes his memoir “Life is Not a Rehearsal.”

Derek Anson Jones is awarded the NEA/TCG Direct­ing Fel­low­ship.

Bill Clinton is re-elected President.

AIDS is no longer the leading cause of death among all Americans, ages 25-44.  For the first time, however, researchers report a larger proportion of AIDS cases among African Americans than among whites.

The FDA approves the first home test for HIV.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt, displayed in its entirety, covers the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Dr. David Ho, a pioneer in aggressive AIDS treatment techniques, is names Time’s “Man of the Year.”

The number of Americans dying annually from AIDS-related illnesses declines substantially due to new “combination therapies” that allow AZT to treat AIDS in tandem with other drugs.

A years-long clinical study reveals that needle exchange programs can reduce HIV infection rates by up to two thirds.

By year’s end, a total of 581,429 cases and 362,004 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Jim Brudner has an exhibition of his photographs of rural America at La MaMa Gallery in New York.

Derek Anson Jones receives the Connecticut Critics Circle award for Best Director.

Jodie Foster and Maurice Sendak receive honorary doctorates at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that over 30 million people are infected with HIV worldwide and that 16,000 people are diagnosed with the virus daily.

President Bill Clinton (YLS ’73) makes finding an AIDS vaccine within ten years a top national priority.

AIDS related deaths decrease by nearly 40 percent thanks to aggressive new treatment techniques.

By year’s end, a total of 641,086 cases and 390,692 deaths have been reported in the United States.

News of the Monica Lewinsky scandal is first reported in the mainstream media.  Though President Clinton will admit to lying about his sexual relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, he will survive the ensuing impeachment process.

Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming, dies from head injuries sustained in an attack motivated by his sexuality.

The CDC reports that African Americans account for nearly 50 percent of AIDS-related deaths in the United States. AIDS-related mortality rates outstrip white mortality AIDS-related mortality rates by a factor of ten to one.

Congress passes the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act, which authorizes compensation for hemophiliacs infected with HIV as the result of unscreened clotting agents between 1982 and 1987.

Despite proof offered by HHS showing that needle exchange programs do not encourage illegal drug use, the Clinton administration fails to lift the ban on federal funding for such programs.

Following reports of the highly disproportionate effect of HIV and AIDS on the their communities, African American leaders urge the President to declare a “state of emergency.” Congress responds with the Minority AIDS initiative, which provides over $150 million for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in minority communities.

By year’s end, a total of 688,200 cases and 410,800 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Michael Palm dies from AIDS-related heart com­pli­ca­tions at his home in Tel­luride, Col­orado, at age 47.

Jim Brudner dies from AIDS-related illnesses on September 18.

Derek Anson Jones wins the Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk nomination for his direction of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer-winning play Wit.

The United States formally relinquishes control over the Panama Canal.

Thirteen students and teachers die in the Columbine High School shooting in Columbine, CO.

Yale College admits 2,522 of 12,620 applicants, an admission rate of 20 percent.  Including tuition, room, and board, a year at Yale College costs $31,940.

The WHO identifies HIV/AIDS as the fourth leading cause of death worldwide and the primary cause of death in Africa.  30 million people are believed to be living with HIV worldwide; some 14 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses.

In nearly 27 countries, HIV infection rates have nearly doubled since the mid-1990s.  The vast majority of people with HIV live in the developing world, which also experiences the vast majority of AIDS-related deaths.

Women now account for nearly a quarter of AIDS cases in the US, up from just seven percent in 1985.  

By year’s end, a total of 733,374 cases and 429,825 deaths have been reported in the United States.

Derek Anson Jones dies on January 18 at the age 38.

Following a hotly contested recount in the State of Florida, the Supreme Court rules George H.W. Bush (YC ’68) the winner of the 2000 presidential election.

Kurt Schmoke is appointed the first African-American Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation.

Desmond Tutu, Frank Gehry, William F. Buckley, Jr., Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Tom Stoppard receive honorary doctorates at the university’s annual commencement ceremony.

George Chauncey is awarded the first Brudner Prize by Yale University, established by Jim Brudner to honor “an accomplished scholar or activist whose work has made significant contributions to the understanding of LGBT issues or furthered the tolerance of LGBT people.”

In recognition for her pioneering medical research and AIDS activism, Dr. Mathilde Krim is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The thirteenth annual International AIDS Conference is held in Durban, South Africa, emphasizing the global nature of the epidemic. 

Under the leadership of US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the United Nations declares AIDS a threat to global peace and security.  In the same year, President Clinton calls AIDS a threat to national security and Congress authorizes $600 million in federal money to combat AIDS worldwide.

By year’s end, a total of 774,467 cases and 448,060 deaths have been reported in the United States. 

David Brudnoy establishes The David Brudnoy Fund for AIDS Research managed out of Massachusetts General Hospital. That same year, he becomes a brohter of Phi Alpha Tau, a communicative arts fraternity for which he was a mentor.

Hijacking commercial airplanes, terrorists carry out suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, VA on September 11.  A fourth plane, meant to attack a target in Washington, DC, crashes in rural Pennsylvania as the result of a passenger revolt.  Nearly 3,000 people die.

A US-led coalition invades Afghanistan to apprehend Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and to topple the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist regime that harbored him.  Though the Taliban is quickly driven from power, bin Laden will elude authorities for another ten years.

February seventh is the first Annual Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

Research shows that AIDS is spreading rapidly through Russia and Eastern Europe, with an estimated 250,000 new infections in 2001 alone.

June 5 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first-ever reported case of AIDS.

The US Department of Homeland Security is created.

Ten people are killed during the Beltway sniper attacks.

The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS reports that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa and fourth largest killer worldwide.  Among individuals aged 15-59, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death worldwide.

Botswana initiates a national AIDS treatment program.  It is the first African country to do so.

After mostly win­ning a sev­en­teen-year bat­tle with AIDS, Frank Moore dies at the age of 48.

David Brudnoy is diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma in September.

The space shuttle Columbia breaks up upon reentering earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven of its crew.

A US-led coalition invades Iraq to oust the Ba’athist regime of dictator Saddam Hussein. 

October fifteenth is the first Annual Latino HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

The CDC reports that over half of the 40,000 new infections that occur in the United States are the result of individuals not knowing they’re infected.

David Brudnoy dies on December 9 at the age of 64.

George H.W. Bush is reelected President.

Former President Ronald Reagan dies.

The social networking website Facebook is founded.

The FDA approves an HIV diagnostic test kit that can provide results in twenty minutes.

President Bush launches President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an effort to combat AIDS worldwide.

Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, killing nearly 2,000 people and causing $81 billion dollars in damage. 

A highly drug-resistant strain of HIV is discovered in New York City.

The patent on AZT expires, permitting pharmaceutical companies to manufacture more generic versions of the drug.

It is estimated that more than 40 million people are living with AIDS worldwide.  Since 1981, more than 20 million have died of AIDS.

An academic study of medical circumcision among Kenyan men shows that circumcision decreases the risk of HIV transmission in heterosexual intercourse by more than fifty percent.

The FDA approves the first effective one-a-day pill to treat HIV.

The United States Congress renews the Ryan White Care Act for the third time.

David Springer dies of can­cer on June 19 at age 55.

“The Great Recession” begins.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

The CDC estimates that there have been more than 560,000 AIDS-related deaths in the United States since 1981.

Timothy Brown (also known as the “Berlin Patient”) becomes the fist person to be cured of AIDS as the result of a bone marrow transplant intended to treat his leukemia.  Further testing in 2011 confirms that the virus is no longer present in his body.

Barack Hussein Obama, a democrat, is elected the forty-fourth President of the United States.  He is the first African-American to hold this office.

Crude oil prices reach the record high of $147 per barrel.

The CDC determines that infection rates in the United States are substantially higher than previously estimated.  There are 56,000 new cases of HIV every year in the U.S.

While allocating nearly $50 million to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, President Bush also lifts the blanket ban on HIV-positive travelers to the United States.

Michael Jackson, the legendary “King of Pop,” dies.

Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as the first Latino justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The District of Columbia Health Department reports an incidence of HIV of greater than three percent—making the rate of infection in the nation’s capital greater than that of West Africa.  AIDS in Washington, DC is described as a “severe and generalized epidemic.”

U.S. Congress does away with the long-standing ban on the use of federal money for needle exchanges.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy which banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, is repealed.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes, causing the biggest marine oil spill in history.

President Obama signs into law the Affordable Care Act, increasing access to healthcare for those with chronic medical conditions such as HIV.  The Obama administration also unveils the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States.

Charles Ludlam receives the Rosamund Gilder Award for distinguished acheivement in Theater.

Charles Ludlam stages the American premiere of “The English Cat” for the Santa Fe Opera.

Charles Ludlam receives his fourth Village Voice Obie award for distinguished achievment in theater.