Purdue University, located in West Lafayette (West Lafayette, Indiana), Indiana, U.S. (United States), is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University System. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act (Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act), accepted a donation of land and money from Lafayette (Lafayette, Indiana) businessman John Purdue to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture in his name. The first classes were held on September 16, 1874, with three buildings, six instructors, and 39 students. Today, Purdue enrolls the second largest student body of any university in Indiana and has one of the largest international student populations of any public university in the United States. The universitys newly constructed $400 million Discovery Park (Discovery_Park_(Purdue)) and Purdue Research Park are both home to nearly 200 medical, biotechnology, and nanotechnology laboratories and companies. Purdue was the first university globally to have ever offered an aeronautics program.

Purdue offers both undergraduate (undergraduate education) and graduate (graduate school) programs in over 200 major (academic major) areas of study. The university has been highly influential in Americas history of aviation (aviation history), and Purdues aviation technology and aeronautical engineering programs remain among the highest rated and most competitive in the world. Purdue established the first college credit (credit (education)) offered in flight training, the first four-year bachelors degree in aviation, and the first university airport (Purdue University Airport). In the mid-20th century, Purdues aviation program expanded to encompass advanced spaceflight technology giving rise to Purdues nickname, Cradle of Astronauts. Twenty-two Purdue graduates have gone on to become astronauts, including Gus Grissom (one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts), Neil Armstrong (the first person to walk on the moon), and Eugene Cernan (the last person to walk on the moon).