Cambridge University’s 800th Anniversary celebrations headed state-side this week as the Empire State Building, one of the world’s tallest and most famous structures, was lit in Cambridge’s emblematic light blue colours.

In addition, representatives of the University rang NASDAQ’s closing bell on 2nd December as images of Cambridge’s quaint streets and historic buildings were broadcast across Times Square.

The lighting of the Empire State Building last night coincided with an 800th anniversary gala in Gotham Hall, New York, attended by a host of Cambridge alumni including cultural icons Sir David Frost, Salman Rushdie, Henry Louis Gates and Stephen Fry.

The celebrations emphasise the historic and growing intellectual relationship between Cambridge and the United States with roughly 14,500 Cambridge alumni living in the US today, among them Barack Obama’s first White House Counsel, Gregory Craig.

On 3 December, Cambridge's Deputy Vice-Chancellor Gordon Johnson participated in a lecture exchange at Harvard to honour the particular links between the two academic institutions; Harvard was founded by Cambridge alumnus John Harvard.

Dr William H. Janeway, co-chair of Cambridge's 800th Anniversary Campaign Board and ringer of the NASDAQ bell on Wednesday said: “Nowhere outside Britain is Cambridge's unique capacity to transform the future more evident than in the United States. We hope that our alumni, supporters and friends there will all join us in celebrating our 800th anniversary and in looking forward to future centuries of success.”

NASDAQ and Times Square photos by Jason Dyer.