Lewis and Clark begin their exploration across the western half of North America, Verdi premiers "Requiem," the people of Ireland vote to legalize same-sex marriage, and the birthday club includes Su Xun and Arthur Conan Doyle - with a reading from Doyle's "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1."

"Bleeding Kansas," Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross, and the birthday club includes Alexander Pope and Harold Robbins - with a reading from Pope's "An Essay on Man."

William Shakespeare's sonnets are published for the first time, Levi Strauss gets the patent for denim jeans with rivets, and the birthday club includes Honore de Balzac and John Stuart Mill - with a reading of Shakespeare's "Sonnet #17."

"Centigrade" flips the Celsius temperature scale, Parks Canada is established, and the birthday club includes Jim Lehrer and novelist Jodi Picoult - with a reading from Picoult's book "Off the Page."

Rhode Island bans slavery (sort of) and the birthday club includes Omar Khayyam, Frank Capra, and Tina Fey - with a reading from Khayyam's "The Rubaiyat."

The Buttonwood Agreement establishes the first stock exchange in the U.S., SCOTUS rules against racist segregation of public schools, and it's the birthday of Dorothy Richardson - with a reading from her book, "Pointed Roofs."

The U.S. Congress passes the Sedition Act, the first Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles, and the birthday club includes Margaret Rey and Studs Terkel - with a reading from Terkel's "Touch and Go: A Memoir."

Robespierre pushes through the "Self-Denying Ordinance," Standard Oil is found to be an "unreasonable monopoly," and the birthday club includes L. Frank Baum, Katherine Anne Porter, and Utah Phillips - with a reading from Porter's "The Never-Ending Wrong."

The birthday club includes George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Christine Brennan, Raphael Saadiq, and Mark Zuckerberg - with a reading from George Orwell's "1984."

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom declares that Britain would remain neutral in the U.S. Civil War, the MOVE bombing, and a reading from Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's "Two Offers."