The Story of Writing

The treaty that ended the war between France and China, the International Council on Archives, Cole Porter, Robert McNamara, and Jackie Wilson - with a reading from one of Cole Porter's best.

James Madison proposes 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution but the states have the red editing pen, Teddy Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, and George Orwell publishes "1984" - with a reading from the novel.

The Treaty of Tordesillas, the Petition of Right, the resolution that led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, breaching the Yellow River Dam in World War II, and it's Gwendolyn Brooks' birthday - with a reading from her book "Maud Martha."

The first, patented drive-in, Midway, D-Day, Alexander Pushkin, and Thomas Mann - with a reading from Mann's "Death in Venice and Other Stories."

A day that repeatedly brought sweeping changes: the end of the Ming Dynasty and beginning of the Qing Dynasty, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Elvis plays "Hound Dog" on TV, Khomeini is jailed by the Shah of Iran, the Six-Day War, Robert F. Kennedy, and the Tank Man of Tiananmen Square. Also, a reading from Henry David Thoreau's essay "Walking."

Turning away the MS St. Louis, evacuating English forces from Dunkirk, and a reading from Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches."

A Dutch charter establishes the West India Company, Memphis Minnie, Allen Ginsberg, Eric Carle, Larry McMurtry, and Curtis Mayfield - with a reading from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The Quartering Act, Marconi gets a patent for wireless, Thomas Hardy, Dorothy West, and Norton Juster - with a reading from Dorothy West's column in the Martha's Vineyard newspaper, The Vineyard Gazette.

What a day: Scotch whisky, Baudelaire, and the Declaration of Conscience. The Heimlich maneuver is published on the birth date of Alanis Morissette, though a few years passed before she would write "Jagged Little Pill." And a reading of Khalil Gibran's "The Astronomer."

The UCMJ, Walt Whitman, Fred Allen, Al Young, Svetlana Alexievich and a reading from Whitman's A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown .

Joan of Arc, the Man of a Thousand Voices: Mel Blanc, James Chaney, Idina Menzel, and a reading from Willa Cather's "My Antonia."

Memorial Day in the U.S. and Sojourner Truth's speech "Ain't I a Woman?" Igor Stravinsky, Everest, Patrick Henry, and Bob Hope. Today's reading is from Harriet Tubman's autobiography.

The Indian Removal Act, the Sierra Club, "The Forgotten Prisoners," Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, "T-Bone" Walker, and Maeve Binchy - also a reading from "To the Lighthouse," by Virginia Woolf.

Julia Ward Howe, Dashiell Hammett, Rachel Carson, Herman Wouk, and the Chekhov of the Suburbs. The Golden Gate Bridge opens and a reading from Silent Spring.

President Andrew Johnson acquitted - barely, the last Czar of Russia is crowned, un-American Activities, and you could call it the birth of the cool, and so much more, including a reading from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself."

The U.S. Constitutional Convention, John Scopes indicted, JFK wants a man on the moon, Star Wars opens, and it's the birthday of the Sage of Concord.