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

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed and the birthday club includes Jane Bolin, Ellen Goodman, and Hattie Gossett - with a reading from one of Goodman's columns.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" is published, so is Alcoholics Anonymous' "Big Book." The birthday club includes Joseph Pulitzer and Anne Lamott - with a reading from Lamott's "Bird by Bird."

Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse and the birthday club includes Charles Baudelaire, Paulina Marshall, and Sam Harris - with a reading from Baudelaire's poem "Paris Spleen."

FDR freezes wages and more, Grace Hopper creates a new way to code, and the birthday club includes Phil Schaap and Barbara Kingsolver - with a reading from Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible."

It's National Beer Day in the US, and the birthday club includes the internet (really), William Wordsworth, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Billie Holliday - with a reading from Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood."

The birthday club includes Marion McEwen Crabbe, Leonora Carrington, Ram Dass, and Homer Aridjis - with a reading from one of Carrington's artist statements.

The Petition of Compromise was submitted to Spain - striking a blow for independence, and the American Birth Control League was incorporated by Margaret Sanger. 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 the birthday club includes Muddy Waters and Maya Angelou - with a reading from Angelou's poem "Still, I Rise."

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his last speech, the Panama Papers are published, and it is Washington Irving's birthday. This episode includes a reading from Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."