On Apr. 21, 1881, the University of Connecticut began with a gift. In 1880, brothers Charles and Augustus Storrs offered the state of Connecticut 170 acres of farmland, a former Civil War orphanage and barns to establish an agricultural school for boys.

On April 21, 1881 the General Assembly voted to establish the Storrs Agricultural School. It opened five months later on September 28, 1881, with three faculty members and 12 students. The University officially became the University of Connecticut in 1939.