On February 16, 1893, the Agricultural College of the State of Montana was founded as the state's land-grant college. Renamed The Montana College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, the institution was popularly known as Montana Agricultural College, or MAC. By the 1920s, the institution's preferred name was Montana State College and so it remained until July 1, 1965, when, in recognition of the enormous advances in the College's commitment to scientific and humanistic research, the thirty-ninth legislative assembly of the state of Montana changed MSC's name to Montana State University.