1754: King's College opened in New York City. The Anglican academy would later become Coumbia University. The 10 students of the college met for their first classes, in Latin and Greek, in a schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Church at Broadway and Wall streets. The early college educated a number of American patriots and intellectuals including several members of the Continental Congress. Among its first students and trustees were Robert R. Livingston, a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence; Gouverneur Morris, author of much of the final wording of the Constitution; Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury and one of the authors of the Federalist Papers; and John Jay, the nation's first Chief Justice and also an author of the Federalist Papers. (Source: Library of Congress)