The Story of Writing

The New York Times prints its first paper, Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Exposition Speech on Race Relations, and the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation goes on air - with a reading from L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables."

The government of the U.S. is established, the Battle of Antietam, and the birthday club includes William Carlos Williams, John Creasy, Elizabeth Enright, Mary Stewart, and Hank Williams - with a reading from Enright's "Thimble Summer."

The Grito de Dolores, and the birthday club includes Nadia Boulanger, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and H. A. Rey - with a reading of William Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up."

The HMS Beagle lands in the Galapagos, the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, and it's the birthday of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - with a reading from her novel "Half of a Yellow Sun."

Handel completes his masterpiece "Messiah" and the birthday club includes William H. Armstrong and Kate Millett - with a reading of Kate LaDew's poem "I taste the soap in the cup of tea you pour for me."

Henry Hudson reaches the river that would be named after him, "Je me souviens," Francis Scott Key watches the British attack Baltimore, and it's the birthday of Mildred D. Taylor - with a reading from Key's "Defense of Fort M'Henry."

Elizabeth Barrett marries Robert Browning, Pres. John F. Kennedy delivers his speech "We choose to go to the moon," and the birthday club includes H. L. Mencken, Nellie Wong, and Michael Ondaatje - with a reading from Mencken's diary.

Charles Lindbergh voices his anti-Semitism to a national audience and the birthday club includes O. Henry and D. H. Lawrence - with a reading from Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

John Smith is elected council president of Jamestown Colony, Elias Howe gets the patent for a sewing machine, and the birthday club includes Hanna Webster Foster, Mary Oliver, and Stephen Jay Gould - with a reading from Gould's "Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History."

The Compromise of 1850, "debugging," and the birthday club includes Leo Tolstoy, Kimberly Willis Holt, and Adam Sandler - with a reading from Holt's " When Zachary Beaver Came to Town."

Michelangelo's "David" is unveiled, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Ford pardons Nixon - with a reading from Nella Larsen's "Quicksand."

Union General William T. Sherman orders the people of Atlanta to evacuate the city and the birthday club includes C. J. Dennis, Elinor Wylie, Edith Sitwell, Dorothy Marie Donnelly, and Sonny Rollins - with a reading from Sherman's memoirs.

Pilgrims and Puritans start settling in America, women's suffrage begins 50 years before the 19th Amendment is ratified, and the birthday club includes Isabella Leonarda, Jane Addams, and Robert Pirsig - with a reading from Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

The UK declares war on China in order to secure the opium trade, Pres. Teddy Roosevelt mediates the end of the Russo-Japanese war, U.S. officials arrest "Tokyo Rose," and it's Jonathan Kozol's birthday - with a reading from his book "Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools."

Los Angeles is founded, George Eastman patents film on a roll, and Evelyn Waugh publishes A Handful of Dust." The birthday club includes Richard Wright and Beyonce - with a reading from Wright's "Black Boy."

The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolutionary War, Frederick Douglass escapes slavery, the UN institutes its so-called Bill of Rights for Women, the Paris Global Climate Agreement is ratified, and a reading from Douglass's "My Escape from Slavery."

Theodore Roosevelt first says, "Walk softly, and carry a big stick," the Japanese sign the Instrument of Surrender to end combat in WWII, and the birthday club includes Eugene Field and Billy Preston - with a reading from Roosevelt's essay "Lincoln and Free Speech."

The first woman switchboard operator goes to work and the birthday club includes Johann Pachelbel, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Harriet Shaw Weaver, Liz Carpenter, and Lily Tomlin - with a reading from Elspeth Huxley's " The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood ."

Union troops - under Gen. William T. Sherman - attacked the city of Atlanta, Zeppelin got the patent for a "navigable balloon," the U.S. Congress passed its first neutrality act, and the Nazis mounted a false flag attack within Germany to establish a reason to invade Poland. The birthday club includes Roger Dean, Van Morrison, and Itzhak Perlman - with a reading from Willa Cather's &...

Explorer Ernest Shackleton rescues every member of his crew on the ship Endurance and the birthday club includes Mary Shelley, Virginia Lee Burton, Kitty Wells, Molly Ivins, and Anna Politkovskaya - with a reading from Shelley's "Frankenstein."

The birthday club includes John Locke, Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Temple Grandin - with a reading from Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding."

Scientific American magazine prints its first issue, Emmet Till is murdered in Mississippi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his speech now called "I Have a Dream" - which is today's reading.

Canada's "Famous Five" ask a simple question, the Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed, and the birthday club includes Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Cecil Smith, and Alice Coltrane - with a reading of a comic poem by an unknown writer.

The French National Assembly approves the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," the Quebec assembly made French the province's official language, and the birthday club includes Zona Gale, Caroline Pafford Miller, and Ben Bradlee - with a reading from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's "Enlightened Motherhood."

The Great Moon Hoax begins, the National Park Service is written into existence, and the birthday club includes Walt Kelly and Leonard Bernstein - with a reading from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."