Short answers, pulled from the story.
The University of Cambridge began operations in 1209 when scholars left Oxford. This migration followed a violent dispute where local town authorities hanged three Oxford students after the death of a woman.
Hugh de Balsham founded Peterhouse as the first college in 1284. No single college existed before the university itself began operations in 1209.
Students earning first class honours received the title wrangler while the top student held the position known as Senior Wrangler. Isaac Newton shaped this system during the late 17th century until the mid-19th century.
Female students could take university exams starting in the late 19th century before full admission was granted in 1948. A special graduation ceremony occurred in 1998 to confer degrees on women who attended before 1948.
Seventy alumni have won Nobel Prizes as of 2020 while eleven Fields Medals and seven Turing Awards were held by 2019. Francis Bacon, Lord Byron, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Rajiv Gandhi, John Harvard, Stephen Hawking, John Maynard Keynes, John Milton, Vladimir Nabokov, Jawaharlakh Nehru, Isaac Newton, Salman Rushdie, Bertrand Russell, Alan Turing, Ludwig Wittgenstein, William Wordsworth, and 194 Olympic medal-winning athletes represent notable alumni.