| 1852: |
Young Ladies' Seminary opens in Benicia, which becomes the state capital of California |
| 1865: |
Cyrus and Susan Mills, Christian missionaries returning from the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii), purchase the Seminary from Oberlin graduate Mary Atkins |
| 1871: |
Cyrus and Susan Mills move the Seminary to the Oakland foothills where a new campus had been purchased and Mills Hall is built |
| 1879: |
Mills Alumnae Association is founded |
| 1885: |
Mills is chartered as the first women's college west of the Rockies |
| 1889: |
Mills grants first bachelor's degrees |
| 1904: |
Bell Tower constructed, the first of six buildings designed by famed architect Julia Morgan |
| 1917: |
Mills is admitted to the Association of American Universities and Colleges |
| 1920: |
Graduate Division opens, offering programs to both women and men |
| 1921: |
Mills confers first master's degrees |
| 1926: |
Education Department establishes the Children's School, the first laboratory school west of the Mississippi |
| 1941: |
Mills becomes one of the nation's first liberal arts colleges to grant a degree in modern dance |
| 1974: |
Mills becomes the first women's college to offer a computer science major |
| 1990: |
Trustees reaffirm commitment to educating women following campus-wide strike to remain all-women at undergraduate level |
| 1993: |
Women's Leadership Institute and its Center for Visiting Women Scholars is established |
| 1994: |
Mills hosts Women in Science Summit which releases national report to advance women's leadership in scientific disciplines
Mills endowment passes $100 million mark
Mills Hall is renovated following near-destruction in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
|
| 1999: |
Mills' first doctoral degree, an EdD in educational leadership, is accredited |
| 2002: |
Mills celebrates its Sesquicentennial as the oldest women's college west of the Rockies |
| 2006: |
Mills endowment passes $200 million mark |
| 2007: |
Betty Irene Moore Natural Sciences Building earns a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, becoming the first building in Oakland to earn this distinction |
| 2008: |
Groundbreaking begins on the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business building to house the Mills MBA Program, the first in the West designed to advance women in business |
| 2009: |
An extensive renovation and restoration of the historic concert hall is completed; the hall is renamed the Jeannik Méquet Littlefield Concert Hall |
| 2010: |
94-year-old Hazel Soares graduates from Mills with a bachelor's degree in art history, which makes her the second-oldest person ever to graduate from any college or university
The Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business Building becomes the first business school in the state of California to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council
|
| 2011: |
Alecia A. DeCoudreaux named the 13th president of Mills College |
