The Story of Writing

Lewis and Clark start their exploration of the American West, the Associated Press gets its start, and Verdi premiers "Requiem." The birthday club includes Su Xun and Arthur Conan Doyle - with a read…

"Bleeding Kansas" begins, Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross, and the birthday club includes Alexander Pope, "Fats" Waller, and Harold Robbins - with a reading from Pope's "An Essay on M…

William Shakespeare's sonnets are published, Levi Strauss gets the patent for denim blue jeans (with copper rivets that held the jeans together), and the birthday club includes Honore de Balzac and J…

Centigrade fixes Celsius, Ohio is chartered, the world's first national park service is established, and the birthday club includes Jim Lehrer and Jodi Picoult - with a reading from Picoult's "Change…

Rhode Island bans slavery and the birthday club includes Omar Khayyam, Frank Capra, and Tina Fey - with a reading from Khayyam's "The Rubaiyat."

The Buttonwood Agreement, Brown v. Board of Education, and it is Dorothy Richardson's birthday - with a reading from her book "Pointed Roofs."

The Sedition Act goes into effect, the first Academy Award ceremony takes place, the U.S. Surgeon General warns that cigarettes are as addictive as Schedule I drugs, like heroin or cocaine. The birth…

Robespierre's "Self-Denying Ordinance" goes into effect, Standard Oil is ruled an unreasonable monopoly, and the birthday club includes L. Frank Baum, Katherine Anne Porter, and Utah Philips - with a…

Quite a birthday club, including George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Christine Brennan, Raphael Saadiq, and Mark Zuckerberg - with a reading from George Orwell's "1984."

The UK declares its neutrality in the U.S. Civil War, the MOVE bombing, and a reading from Armistead Maupin's "Logical Family: A Memoir."

The birthday club includes Albert Murray, Burt Bacharach, Farley Mowat, and George Carlin - with a reading from Mowat's "Never Cry Wolf."

The first book is published and the birthday club includes Harriet Quimby and Irving Berlin, with a reading of Rose Islander's "Love 6."

Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman to run for U.S. President, Winston Churchill becomes UK Prime Minister, and Marvel publishes the first issue of "The Incredible Hulk." The birthday club incl…

The oldest treaty - that is still in effect - is signed and the birthday club includes J. M. Barrie and Richard Adams - with a reading from Barrie's "Peter Pan."

It is Victory in Europe or "V-E" Day, small pox is declared eradicated, and the birthday club includes Robert Johnson and Naomi Klein - with a reading from Klein's "This Changes Everything: Capitalis…

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiers, Germans surrender to end WWII in Europe, and the birthday club includes Ruth Prawer-Jhabvala and Angela Carter - with a reading from Carter's "The Lady of the Hou…

The Works Progress Administration is created and the birthday club includes Orson Welles, Bob Seger, and Martha Nussbaum - with a reading from Nussbaum's "Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Huma…

The birthday club includes Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, Tammy Wynette, and Michael Palin - with a reading from Kierkegaard's "Either / Or."

The May Fourth Movement begins in Beijing, Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Freedom Riders set out on their bus trip, and the Ohio National Guard shot i…

SCOTUS rules against neighborhood covenants that restrict home sales to people of color and Septima Poinsette Clark and Pete Seeger were born on this day - with a reading from Clark's "Citizenship Sc…