The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded in New York City and the birthday club includes Samuel Beckett, Eudora Welty, Seamus Haney, and Christopher Hitchens - with a reading from Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is announced "safe and effective," and the birthday club includes Beverly Cleary, Tom Clancy, and Tama Janowitz - with a reading from Baruch Spinoza's "Ethics."

LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the birthday club includes Ellen Goodman, Hattie Gossett, and Marta Breen - with a reading from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's "Songs for the People."

F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes "The Great Gatsby," Alcoholics Anonymous or "The Big Book" is published, and The Good Friday agreement is signed. The birthday club includes David Halberstam and Anne Lamott - with a reading from "The Great Gatsby."

Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders and the birthday club includes Charles Baudelaire, Paulina Marshall, and Sam Harris - with a reading from Baudelaire's "Paris Spleen."

A wage freeze goes into effect in the U.S. and effects how we get health insurance today, the computer language COBOL is born, and it is Barbara Kingsolver's birthday - and this episode includes a reading from Virginia Woolf's "The Waves."

The Teapot Dome scandal steams up, it's National Beer Day in the US, it's the internet's birthday, and other members of the birthday club include Victoria Ocampo, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Billie Holiday - with a reading from Stoneman Douglas' article "How You Can Protect the Environment."

The birthday club includes Leonora Carrington, Ram Dass, Merle Haggard, and Homero Aridjis - with a reading from Carrington's artist notes.

The Petition of Compromise is sent to Spain and sparks the 80 Years War, Margaret Sanger establishes the American Birth Control League, and the birthday club includes Algernon Charles Swinburne, Barbara Holland, and Pharrell Williams - with a reading from Swinburne's "The Garden of Proserpine."

NATO forms and it is the birthdays of Muddy Waters and Maya Angelou - with a reading from Angelou's "Still, I Rise."