The Paris Agreement on Climate Change is adopted, and it is the birthday of Gustave Flaubert - with a reading from his landmark novel "Madame Bovary."

French King Louis XVI goes on trial for treason, British General Edmund Allenby walks into Jerusalem, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine gets emergency approval for use in the U.S., and it is the birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - with a reading from "The Gulag Archipelago."

The UN adopts the Charter on Genocide and happy birthday to Dalton Trumbo - with a reading from "Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen.

A woman performs for the first time on a public English stage, and happy birthdays to John Banville and Mary Gordon - with a reading from "House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton.

Japan attacks the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, and it is the birthday of Willa Cather - with a reading from Cather's "My Antonia."

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 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."

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

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.