The Story of Writing

Georgia becomes the 27th and last state needed to ratify the U.S. Constitution's 13th Amendment, Theodore Roosevelt adds his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Irish Free State is created, and the birthday club includes Cornelia Meigs, Ira Gershwin, and Steven Wright - with a reading from Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

The National Council of Negro Women is founded, London's Great Smog, the Montgomery bus boycott begins, and the birthday club includes Christina Rossetti, Walt Disney, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Richard, and Joan Didion - with a reading from "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte.

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

"The Observer" and "Los Angeles Times" publish their first editions, North Carolina ratifies the 13th Amendment, the Million Dollar Quartet records their jam session, more than 800 students are arrested for demonstrating for free speech on the campus of UC Berkeley, and happy birthday to Rainer Maria Rilke - with a reading from his "Letters to a Young Poet."

Sweden approves its Freedom of the Press Act, and the birthday club includes David Macaulay, Elizabeth Berg, George Saunders, and Ann Patchett - with a reading from "Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The draft lottery, and the birthday club includes Jan Brett, Candace Bushnell, and Jo Walton - with a reading from "Frankenstein," by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Ann Hodges gets hit by a meteorite, and the birthday club includes some serious heavy hitters: Mark Twain, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Shirley Chisholm, and Allan Sherman - with a reading from Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson."

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

The Times of London starts using a steam-powered printing press, and happy birthdays to Berry Gordy and Rita Mae Brown - with a reading from "The Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett.

The American Statistical Association is established, "Also sprach Zaruthustra" premiers, and the birthday club includes Charles A. Beard and Gail Sheehy - with a reading from "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Alexandre Dumas.

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

John Milton publishes " Areopagitica," prohibiting prescribing beer in the U.S., Edwin Hubble publishes his finding the Andromeda was a galaxy, "Doctor Who" premiers, and the birthday club includes Theodore Dwight Weld and Patricia Kathleen Page - with a reading from " The Enchanted April," written by Elizabeth von Arnim.

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

Measuring the speed of light, introducing the phonograph, mass-energy equivalence, allowing women to serve in the UK Parliament, and happy birthday to Voltaire and Elizabeth George Speare - with a reading from Voltaire's "Candide."

European powers sign the second Treaty of Paris, a whale attacks and destroys the Nantucket whaling ship The Essex, the UN adopts the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the Velvet Revolution intensifies, and the birthday club includes Selma Lagerlof, Alistair Cook, and Don DeLillo - with a reading from Lagerlof's "Gosta Berling's Saga."

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

The U.S. time zones are adopted, Britain's Black Friday saw violence against women demonstrating for their right to vote, South Africa ends minority rule of White people, and the birthday club includes Howard Thurman and Margaret Atwood - with a reading from "A Girl of the Limberlost," written by Gene Stratton-Porter.

President Nixon says, "I am not a crook," the first case of COVID-19 is traced back to an open-air food market in Wuhan, the birthday club includes 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 "Letters of a Woman Homesteader," by Elinore Pruitt Stewart.

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea - with a reading from the poem that named this campaign against the Confederate State of Georgia.

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

Walt Disney releases "Fantasia," SCOTUS rules against segregation of Alabama's public buses, reporter Seymour Hersh breaks the story on the My Lai Massacre, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated, and it is the birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson - with a reading from his "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Pudge Heffelfinger, the World Wide Web is formally proposed, and happy birthday to Richelle Mead and Sarah Harmer - with a reading from "The Devil's Dictionary," by Ambrose Bierce.

The Mayflower Compact is signed, so is the armistice that ended World War I, the U.S. Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated, and the birthday club includes Fyodor Dostoevsky, Kurt Vonnegut, and Mary Gaitskill - with a reading from Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."

The Cult of Reason, a top-secret coded message is sent across the Atlantic to alert Ottawa and Washington, D.C. that World War I would end the next day, direct dialing begins in the U.S., the first episode of "Sesame Street," and happy birthday to Neil Gaiman - with a reading from "The Wizard of Oz," by L. Frank Baum.