On this date in 1866, 10 members of the First Congregational Society of Washington, D.C., gathered for a missionary meeting. They decided to establish a seminary for the training of African American preachers. By early 1867, the founders had broadened their mission to include a liberal arts college and university. The university was named for Major General Oliver O. Howard, a Civil War hero and Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a U.S. government agency established in 1865 to aid freed blacks.