1400
1425 – Foundation of the university.
1426 – Classes start.
1432 – Setting up of the Faculty of Theology. The university is ‘complete’ in the old sense of the term with five faculties: theology, canon law, civil law, medicine and the arts.
1467- The Scottish student George Lichton illustrates his course notes with drawings giving us a moving insight into what life was like at the time. The university has many European students.
1472 – The creation of a poetica chair marks the arrival of Humanism.
1500 1502 – Erasmus undertakes his first period of study at Louvain.
1517 - Foundation of the Collège des Trois Langues (Latin, Greek and Hebrew). Louvain is a centre for Humanist studies. In town, the printer Thierry Martens edits great European Humanist texts.
1530-1533 - André Vésale studies in Louvain.
1540 - Gemma Frisius is the first person to hold a chair in Mathematics. He also composes treatises on Geography and Mathematics and makes astronomical and cartographical instruments.
1546 - First "Royal chairs", funded by the state. They give rise to innovative styles of teaching.
1547 - Publication of the Louvain Polyglot Bible. The Faculty of Theology is committed to establishing counter-reformist Catholicism.
1578 – The town is rocked by civil war. Peace is reestablished as of 1585.
1600
1617 - The "Visite" text reorganizes the way the university is run: rules are set on exams, rights and duties of members of the university.
1636 – Creation of the university central library.
1648 - Gérard Van Gutschoven conducts scientific correspondence with Descartes, who entrusts to him copies of the Discours de la méthode for discussion at Louvain.
1658 – The Faculty of Arts opens its modern philosophy programmes.
1687 – The Faculty of Law devises its first teaching programme in French.
1693 - Publication of Philippe Verheyden’s Corporis humani anatomica. The Dutch translation, published in 1711, is hugely successful.
1700
1723 – First Chair of Public Law.
1723-1744 - Henri Rega, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine and rector, extends the library, has a lecture theatre for anatomy built and creates the botanical garden.
1755 – Physical education in the Faculty of Arts commences with practical demonstrations.
1784 - Jean-Pierre Minckelers publishes his Mémoire on inflammable air, a sign of the first developments in modern chemistry.
1788 – The state imposes the transfer of the university to Brussels. This is the final stage in the clash between the university, anxious to maintain its independence, and Emperor Joseph II, inspired by the notions of an enlightened despotism, which favoured education of a primarily practical nature.
1797 – The present Belgian space is part of the French Republic (since 1795). The law of 3 Brumaire of year IV (14 October, 1797), which shakes up the organization of higher education, leads to the abolition of the Université de Louvain.
1800
.jpg "Etudiants ingénieurs à l'institut d'électromécanique. Avant 1914.")
1816 - King Guillaume Ist of the Netherlands brings back university teaching to Louvain in the form of a state university.
1834 – Creation of a free Catholic university in Malines.
1835 – The Catholic University takes over from the state university which was abolished by the university law of 25 September, setting down rules for teaching in Belgium, which has been independent since1830. It recruits European teachers. The Faculty of Medicine takes on the clinical responsibility for the town hospital.
1864 – Creation of special engineering schools. They will later become the Faculté des sciences appliqués (Faculty for Applied Science) en 1961.
1878 - Foundation of the Société générale des Etudiants (Students’ society). Launch of agronomic studies.The Institut agronomique will later become the Faculté des sciences agronomiques (Faculty for agronomy) in 1965.
1884 - Jean-Baptiste Carnoy publishes the Biologie cellulaire and founds the review La Cellule.
1889 – Foundation of the Institut supérieur de philosophie.
1892 - Foundation of the Ecole des sciences politiques et sociales (School of Political and Social Science), which is, alongside the Ecole des sciences commerciales et consulaires (School of commercial and Consular Studies), created in 1897, the forerunner for the Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales et politiques (Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Science), set up in 1950.
1900
1911 – The university starts to offer courses in two languages.
1914 – Fire strikes the university halls and library on 25 August. Closure of the Belgian universities for four years. Some teachers continue to teach abroad. Many students enlist to fight on the front.
1920 – The university is opened to women students.
1933 - Georges Lemaître puts forward the hypothesis of an expanding universe based on one singularity : the primitive atom.
1935 – His first publication reveals the 32 year-old Etienne Lamotte to be a great Orientalist and specialist in Buddhism.
1940-1944- In May, 1940, the library is destroyed by fire. In May, 1944, bombs ravage many university buildings.
1947 –Construction in Louvain, under the supervision of Marc de Hemptinne, of the first Belgian cyclotron.
1954 – Opening of the Université Lovanium in Congo.
1963 - Foundation of the AGEL, Association générale des étudiants (francophone) de Louvain. It later became the AGL, Association générale de Louvain, in 1967.
1968 – The two sections of the university, French and Flemish, decide to separate. The new organic regulations mark the start of forms of representation and participation of all university bodies.
1969 – The Institut de psychologie (Institute of Psychology) becomes the Faculté de psychologie (Faculty of Psychology).
1970 – The law of 24 May sets up two universities : Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Université catholique de Louvain.
1971 – The first stone of Louvain-la-Neuve is laid on 2 February.
1972 – Transfer of the first faculty (Applied Science) to Louvain-la-Neuve. The Louvain-la-Neuve Cyclotron is up and running.
1974 - Creation of the FOPES, Faculté ouverte de politique économique et sociale (Open Faculty of Economic and Social Policy). Christian de Duve obtains the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discovery of lysosomes.
1975 - Christian de Duve founds the l'ICP, Institut international de pathologie cellulaire et moléculaire (International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology) .
1976 – Complete relocation of the Faculté de médecine (Faculty of Medicine) and inauguration of the Cliniques Saint-Luc in Woluwé-Saint-Lambert (Brussels).
1979 – The transfer is completed.
1994 - Inauguration of the Maison de l'UCL in Charleroi, dedicated to Georges Lemaître.
1996 – Under the supervision of André Goffeau, one hundred European libraries publish the complete sequence of the yeast genome.
1999 - Creation of the Fondation Louvain and the Institut universitaire de formation continue (University Institute for Adult Continuing Education)
2000
2000 - UCL opens its virtual campus : www.icampus.ucl.ac.be
2001 – The university’s 575th birthday. Inauguration of the Aula Magna in Louvain-la-Neuve.
2004 – Setting up of the Académie Louvain (29 June). Teaching moves over to the Bologna system. In November, The Times "Educational" Supplement ranks UCL 52nd best university in the world, on a par with Duke (USA). At European level, amongst the complete universities, UCL holds 7th positions (14th in total).
2005 - Benoît Lengelé participates in the first partial face graft in France.
2006 - Creation of the Pôle d'enseignement supérieur (Centre for higher education) bringing UCL together with a group of other higher education institutes. (8 March)
