This week in Cornell history

Jan. 26, 2003 The Friedman Wrestling Center opens with a match against Ohio State. It is the first arena in the United States dedicated solely to wrestling. The 15,000-square-foot building features state-of-the-art training and weight rooms, a student lounge for studying, Internet access, locker rooms and an arena with 1,100 seats. It was named for former star Cornell wrestler Stephen Friedman '59 and his wife, Barbara Benioff Friedman '59.


Provided
Nobel Laureate Robert Holley

Jan. 28, 1922 Robert W. Holley, Ph.D. '47, is born. He joined the Cornell faculty as assistant professor of organic chemistry in 1948 and became professor of biochemistry in 1962. During this time, Holley collaborated with Har Gobind Khorana of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marshall Nirenberg of the National Institutes of Health in exploring the structure of alanine transfer RNA, DNA and protein synthesis. For "breaking the genetic code," they won the 1968 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Jan. 29, 1881 Kappa Alpha Theta's Iota chapter, the first women's fraternity on campus, is founded at Cornell. Because of distance from the fraternity's headquarters in Indiana, the charter was mailed to Ithaca, and the new members initiated themselves. Iota left the Cornell campus in 1965 and returned in 1980. One of the chapter's most famous alumnae is Anna Botsford Comstock, Cornell's first female faculty member, for whom Comstock Hall is named.