The Story of Writing

Ole Romer presents his calculations on the speed of light, and happy birthdays to Voltaire and Elizabeth George Speare - with a reading from Voltaire's "Candide."

The second Treaty of Paris is signed, the Nantucket whaler "The Essex" is sunk by a massive whale inspiring "Moby-Dick," the United Nations adopts The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and the Velvet Revolution takes hold. Happy birthday to Selma Lagerlof - with a reading from her "Gösta Berling's Saga."

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address.

Standard Time is introduced in the U.S., violence and sexual assault made a demonstration for women's suffrage into "Black Friday" in London, South Africa ends Apartheid, and happy birthday to Howard Thurman and Margaret Atwood - with a reading from "Girl of the Limberlost," by Gene Stratton-Porter.

Richard Nixon says, "I am not a crook," and happy birthdays to Peter Cook and Rebecca Walker - with a reading from "Pollyanna," by Eleanor Porter.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is sentenced to death, and the birthday club includes Chinua Achebe and Andrea Barrett - with a reading from Elinore Pruitt Stewart's "Letters of a Woman Homesteader."

Sherman's "March to the Sea" and why we call it that - with a reading from Sam Byers' "Sherman's March to the Sea."

"Moby Dick" is published in the US, Nellie Bly begins her attempt to travel around the world in 80 days, and Ruby Bridges desegregates her elementary school in Louisiana. Happy birthday to Frederick Turner Jackson - with a reading from his "The Frontier in American History."

Walt Disney releases "Fantasia," the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Alabama's racist segregation of buses violated the Constitution, and Seymour Hersh publishes the story of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. Happy birthday to Robert Louis Stevenson - with a reading from his book "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."

The World Wide Web is proposed and the birthday club includes John McGahern, Sarah Harmer, and Richelle Mead - with a reading from McGahern's "The Dark."

The Mayflower Compact is signed, the Armistice ending World War I is signed, and in the U.S. the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is consecrated. The birthday club includes Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mary Gaitskill - with a reading from Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American."

The Cult of Reason, Canada and the U.S. receive the top-secret message that at the 11th hour of the next day, WWI would end, direct dialing starts, "Sesame Street" airs its first episode, and happy birthday to Neil Gaiman - with a reading from L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz."

Kristallnacht, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the birthday club includes Maud Howe Elliott, Mary Travers, Ti-Grace Atkinson, and Allison Wolfe - with a reading from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein."

Mary Lyon establishes Mount Holyoke, Black and White workers go on strike together for the first time in the U.S., and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduces the Civil Works Administration. The birthday club includes Sarah Fielding, Bram Stoker, Margaret Mitchell, Martha Gellhorn, and Kazuo Ishiguro - with a reading from "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The first issue of the London Gazette is published, Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation is extended to slaves in the American colonies, abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy is shot and killed, women are granted suffrage in Colorado, and Montana elects Jeanette Rankin as the first woman in the U.S. Congress. Happy birthday to Albert Camus and Joni Mitchell - with a reading from "The Memoirs of Sherlock Hol...

The Charter of the Forest is sealed in London, and the birthday club includes Derrick Bell, Michael Cunningham, and Colson Whitehead - with a reading from L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables."

The Gunpowder Treason is stopped in London, Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for voting, and the U.S. issues its first patent for an automobile. England and France declare war on the Ottoman Empire and happy birthday to Art Garfunkel - with a reading from Susan B. Anthony's address to the Union League Club.

Sigmund Freud publishes "The Interpretation of Dreams," and happy birthdays to Will Rogers and Charles Frazer - with a reading from Rogers' newspaper column.

English King Henry VIII becomes head of the Anglican Church, feminist playwright Olympe de Gouges meets a sticky end for pointing out that women are equal to men, and the U.S. Congress moves a proposed airport by creating the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Happy birthday to Ludovic Kennedy - with a reading from "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte.

Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenities for publishing "Lady Chatterly's Lover," and the U.S. top brass decides the public should get more optimistic reports on the progress of the Vietnam War. Happy birthdays to Moa Martinson and Isobel Andrews - with a reading from Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance."

Shakespeare's "Othello" premiers, "The Tempest," too, Edmund Burke publishes his polemic "Reflections on the Revolution in France," and the U.S. Library of Congress opens. Happy birthdays to Stephen Crane and Susanna Clarke - with a reading from Crane's "Red Badge of Courage."

Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door, the Netherlands Leiden University Library opens, and the birthday club includes Marie Louise Andrews, Tom Paxton, Ali Farka Touré, and Susan Orlean - with a reading from W. E. B. DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk."

Slave rebellion leader Nat Turner is arrested, the October Manifesto gives Russia a parliamentary monarchy, Orson Welles broadcasts H. G. Well's "The War of the Worlds," and Jackie Robinson breaks the MLB's color barrier. And the birthday club includes Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Zoe Akins, Ruth Gordon, and Jean Chapman - with a reading from Roberts' "The Time of Man."

The opera Don Giovanni premiers, the International Red Cross is established, and this is Black Tuesday. Happy birthday to David Remnick - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Emma."

Columbus lands in what is now Cuba, but he thought he was in Japan. Some of the first institutions of higher ed in new world are established. Jonathan Swift publishes "Gulliver's Travels, and the birthday club includes Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Held, and Susan Harris - with a reading from Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray."