MIT founding (1861/1863/1865) and Course One/Two/Three numbering origin

Morrill Act, land-grant status, doors opening 1865. Course One = Civil (only non-military engineering known), Course Two = Mechanical (William Barton Rogers's "mechanical arts"), Course Three = geology and mining (Metallurgy added 1883).

To tell you the rest of the history, the next school that claims they were an engineering school in the United States was the University of Michigan in 1845. Anybody from Michigan? Well, I'll tell you they're all a bunch of liars because they didn't have any students except bears and opossums back in 1845 in Michigan. Give me a break. The next engineering school was MIT in 1861. But they didn't have any money until the Morrill Act, and that's another story which I won't go into. In 1863, after the Morrill Act, they were named land-grant college of Massachusetts. They were given some land, and they opened their doors after the Civil War in 1865. Of course Course One was civil engineering because that's the only type of engineering, other than military engineering, they might have known of. That's why it's Course One at MIT. And Two — William Barton Rogers wanted to teach the mechanical arts, that's Mechanical Engineering. And Three was geology, mining, and things like that. Metallurgy didn't come into the name until 1883.