Short answers, pulled from the story.
Michigan State University was founded on the 12th of February 1855, when Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed the bill establishing it as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. It was the first agricultural college of its kind in the United States. Classes began on the 13th of May 1857.
On the 18th of March 1863, Michigan designated the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan as its land-grant institution under the Morrill Act of 1862, making it the first land-grant college in the United States. The federal funding arrived just as the college was on the verge of dissolution and effectively saved the institution.
Larry Nassar, a USA Gymnastics physician and MSU faculty member, was convicted of sexually assaulting patients over decades. By the time courts sentenced him in 2017 and 2018, 156 victims had come forward. On the 16th of May 2018, MSU agreed to pay $500 million to the victims, and the scandal led to the resignation of President Lou Anna Simon and the retirement of several other senior officials.
In 1877, botany professor William J. Beal performed the first documented genetic crosses to produce hybrid corn. In the 1960s, MSU scientists developed cisplatin, a leading cancer-fighting drug. Albert Fert, an adjunct professor at MSU, shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics. The university's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, completed in 2022 at a cost of $730 million, continues nuclear and astrophysics research.
John A. Hannah became president of the college in 1941 and oversaw its largest expansion in history, using G.I. Bill funding to drive enrollment from 15,000 in 1950 to 38,000 in 1965. His strategy was to build dormitories, fill them with students, and use tuition income to fund the next building. He also co-founded what became Oakland University in 1957, partnering with Matilda Dodge Wilson.
The Spartans have won Rose Bowls in 1954, 1956, 1988, and 2014, and claimed six football national championships. Men's basketball won national titles in 1979 and 2000, with 28 straight NCAA tournament appearances under coach Tom Izzo. The men's ice hockey program won national championships in 1966, 1986, and 2007. Former coach Ron Mason holds the all-time record of 924 coaching wins in college hockey.