The Story of Writing

The first trans-Pacific cables were run from California to Hawaii and UNESCO adopts the Convention against Discrimination in Education. Happy birthdays to Anne Conway and Shirley Jackson - with a reading from Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist."

I can't tell you how many times I've answered calls and people asked if I was real or a machine. So, I just wanted to clarify that I'm real. Really.

The atrocities of Nanjing begin and the birthday club includes Jean Gerson and Taylor Swift - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Persuasion."

The Paris Agreement on climate change and happy birthday to Gustave Flaubert - with a reading from his "Madame Bovary."

Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S., and happy birthdays to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Jim Harrison - with a reading from Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago."

Encyclopedia Brittanica publishes its first edition and the birthday club includes William Lloyd Garrison, Emily Dickinson, and Melvil Dewey - with a reading of Dickinson's '"Hope" is the thing with feathers.'

Genocide is named a crime by the U.N. and happy birthday to Dalton Trumbo - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

A woman performs on stage - for the first time - in England, and happy birthdays to John Banville and Mary Gordon - with a reading from Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

The bombing of Pear Harbor, and happy birthdays to Willa Cather and Harry Chapin - with a reading from Cather's "My Antonia."

Georgia becomes the last state needed to ratify the 13th Amendment - ending slavery in the US, President Theodore Roosevelt states his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and the Irish Free State is born. The birthday club includes Cornelia Meigs, Ira Gershwin, and Stephen Wright - with a reading from Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

Georgia becomes the last state needed to ratify the 13th Amendment - ending slavery in the US, President Theodore Roosevelt states his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and the Irish Free State is born. The birthday club includes Cornelia Meigs, Ira Gershwin, and Stephen Wright - with a reading from Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

Mary McLeod Bethune establishes the National Council of Negro Women, the Montgomery Bus Boycott begins, and the birthday club includes Christina Rosetti, Walt Disney, Little Richard, and Joan Didion - with a reading from Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights."

North Carolina ratifies the 13th Amendment, the "Million-Dollar Quartet" records their only session, and the Free Speech Movement begins in Berkeley. And happy birthday to Rainer Maria Rilke - with a reading from his "Letters to a Young Poet."

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 protect 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 Robert Louis Stephenson's "Treasure Island."

The U.S. holds its first draft lottery since World War II, and the birthday club includes Jan Brett, Candace Bushnell, and Jo Walton - with a reading from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

Ann Hodges gets hit by a meteor and the birthday club includes Samuel Clemens, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Shirley Chisholm, and Allan Sherman - with a reading from Clemens' "Pudd'nhead Wilson."

The Beatles release "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," Atari releases Pong, and happy birthdays to Louisa May Alcott, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle - with a reading from Alcott's "Little Women."

The Times of London switches to steam-powered presses, and happy birthdays to Berry Gordy and Rita Mae Brown - with a reading from Sarah Orne Jewett's "The Country of the Pointed Firs."

The American Statistical Association is founded, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" premiers, and happy birthdays to Charles A. Beard and Gail Sheehy - with a reading from Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Christo."

The Hull note is presented to Japanese officials on the same day a Japanese strike force sets off to attack Pearl Harbor and happy birthdays to Sarah Moore Grimke and Charles M. Schultz - with a reading from Grimke's "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women."

Albert Einstein presents his theory of general relativity, The Hollywood Ten are blacklisted by movie studios, and the Reagan Administration is found guilty of selling weapons to Iran in order to fund Nicaraguan militias. Happy birthday to Helen Hooven Santmyer - with a reading from her "...And Ladies of the Club."

"Black Beauty" is published, 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 proclamation defending freedom of the press "Areopagitica," the U.S. bars prescriptions of beer, Hubble publishes his proof that Andromeda was a galaxy, and the BBC airs the first episode of "Dr. Who." 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."