Garrison Keillor's Podcast

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, wherein the Chinese government leveled military tanks and troops against students and workers.

It’s the birthday of Kathleen Woodiwiss (1939), who set the template for the historical romance novel as we know it today. Her first novel sold 600,000 copies upon its publication in 1972.

On this day in 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in Salem Town, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem Witch Trials.

It’s the birthday of Marilyn Monroe (1926), who was “discovered” by photographers while working in an airplane factory during World War II. They persuaded her to become a model.

It’s the birthday of Walt Whitman (1819), who first published “Leaves of Grass” in 1855, and who kept revising and reissuing it until 1891, the year before he died.

On this day in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated. The monument has 36 marble columns: one for each state in the union at the time of Lincoln's assassination.

The world premiere of the ballet “The Rite of Spring” caused a riot on this day in 1913. The audience members who weren't thrown out threw vegetables at the orchestra.

On this day in 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. About 100,000 Native Americans were forcibly marched thousands of miles to lands undesirable to white colonizers.

It was on this day in 1937 that the Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public. 18,000 people showed up to cross the bridge; many tap-danced the whole way.

Today’s the birthday of documentary photographer Dorothea Lange (1895), best known for her Depression-era photo “Migrant Mother, Nipoma, California, 1936.”