The Story of Writing

The birthday club includes Octavia Hill, Joseph Conrad, and Gussie Davis - with a reading from Kate Chopin's "The Awakening."

Sweden becomes the first country to establish Freedom of the Press and the birthday club includes David Macaulay, Elizabeth Berg, T. C. Boyle, George Saunders, and Ann Patchett - with a reading from Berg's "The Art of Mending."

The U.S. draft lottery for selecting civilians to serve in the Vietnam war and the birthday club includes Jan Brett, Candace Bushnell, and Jo Walton - with a reading from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

The birthday club includes Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, L. M. Montgomery, Shirley Chisholm, and Allan Sherman - with a reading from Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson."

Pong premiers and the birthday club includes Louisa May Alcott, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle - with a reading from Alcott's classic "Little Women."

Steam-powered printing presses start rolling and the birthday club includes Berry Gordy and Rita Mae Brown - with a reading from "The Country of Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett.

Statistics get their champion, Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" premiers, and the birthday club includes Charles A. Beard and Gail Sheehy - with a reading from Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Christo."

The U.S. gives Japan "the Hull note" and the birthday club includes Sarah Moore Grimke and Charles M. Schultz - with a reading from Grimke's book, "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women."

Einstein presents his equations on general relativity, the "Hollywood 10" are blacklisted, the Reagan Administration is found guilty of selling weapons to Iran to fund Nicaraguan death squads, and it's the birthday of Helen Hooven Santmyer - with a reading from her bestseller "And Ladies of the Club."

Anna Sewell publishes "Black Beauty" and the birthday club includes Frances Hodgson Burnett and Arundhati Roy - with a reading from Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden."

John Milton publishes the pamphlet now regarded as the cornerstone of freedom of the press, the U.S. President prohibits doctors from prescribing beer, the first episode of "Dr. Who" premiers, and the birthday club includes Theodore Dwight Weld and P. K. Page - with a reading from Elizabeth von Arnim's "The Enchanted April."

The birthday club includes George Eliot, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodney Dangerfield, and Terry Gilliam - with a reading from Eliot's "Mill on the Floss."

Ole Romer determines the speed of light, Thomas Edison unveils his phonograph, Albert Einstein publishes his mass-energy equivalence, women get the right to join Parliament (but not to vote), and the birthday club includes Voltaire and Elizabeth George Speare - with a reading from Voltaire's "Candide."

The second Treaty of Paris is signed, a whale destroys the ship "The Essex" inspiring the book "Moby-Dick," the UN adopts The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the Velvet Revolution intensifies in Prague, and it is the birthday of Selma Lagerlof - with a reading from her novel "Gosta Berling's Saga."

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most famous speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address. We hear a bit of the story of that day and a reading of the complete Address.

"Local times" end at train stations across the U.S., British suffragists suffer "Black Friday" in London, South Africa ends apartheid, and it is the birthday of Howard Thurman and Margaret Atwood - with a reading from Gene Stratton-Porter's "A Girl of the Limber Lost."

Nixon says, "I am not a crook" and the birthday club includes Peter Cook and Rebecca Walker - with a reading from Walker's essay, "Becoming the Third Wave."

Fyodor Dostoevsky is sentenced to death and the birthday club includes China Achebe and Andrea Barrett - with a reading from " Letters of a Woman Homesteader."

Union General William T. Sherman begins his march from Atlanta to Savanah, Georgia. It's called the March to the Sea because of Sam Byers. This episode includes the story of the campaign and a reading from Byers' poem "Sherman's March to the Sea."

Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" is published in the U.S., Nellie Bly attempts to travel around the world in less than 80 days, Ruby Bridges desegregates her elementary school, and it's the birthday of Frederick Turner Jackson - with a reading from his landmark book "The Frontier in American History."

Walt Disney releases "Fantasia," SCOTUS rules that Alabama's segregated buses violate the Constitution, Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, the U.S. Vietnam Veterans' War Memorial is unveiled, and it is Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday, with a reading from his classic "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Tim Berners-Lee proposes something called the World Wide Web. The birthday club includes John MacGahern, Sarah Harmer, and Richelle Mead - with a reading from MacGahern's "The Dark."

The Mayflower Compact is signed, it is Armistice Day, and the birthday club includes Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mary Gaitskill - with a reading from Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions."

The post-revolution French imposed the Cult of Reason on the nation, the top-secret message stipulating the end of WWI is sent from Europe to the U.S. and Canada, direct distance dialing starts in the U.S., and "Sesame Street" premiers. It is Neil Gaiman's birthday - and we hear a reading from L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz."

This is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, and decades later this day also saw the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The birthday club includes Maud Howe Elliott, Mary Travers, and Allison Wolfe - with a reading from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."