The opera "Don Giovanni" premiers in Prague, the International Red Cross is voted into existence, and it is "Black Tuesday" - the stock market crash at the beginning of the Great Depression. It is the birthday of The New Yorker's editor David Remnick and this episode includes a reading from Jane Austen's "Emma."

It's a big day for colleges in the new world, Jonathan Swift publishes "Gulliver's Travels," and the birthday club includes Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Held, and Susan Harris - with a reading from Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait of Dorian Gray."

The Missouri Governor signed an order to exterminate mormons, a Soviet naval officer refuses to launch a nuclear torpedo, and it's the birthday of Sylvia Plath - with a reading from her "Unabridged Journals."

Wyatt Earp was part of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, Ida B. Wells publishes her pamphlet "Southern Horrors," and Hilary Clinton and Marisha Pessl celebrate their birthdays.

The Light Brigade charges the wrong guns, the Zinoviev letter is published in the UK, and birthdays included Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, Anne Tyler, Zadie Smith, and Katy Perry - with a reading from Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo."

A transcontinental telegraph line begins operations, the first person to actually survive the plunge goes over Niagara Falls, about 90 percent of Iceland's women go on strike, and the birthday club includes Sarah Josepha Hale and Alexandra David-Neel - with a reading from George McDonald's "At the Back of the North Wind."

The first national convention on Women’s Rights begins in Massachusetts and the birthday club includes Ellie Greenwich and Michael Crichton - with a reading from Crichton's "The Lost World."

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins, Jean-Paul Sartre refuses the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the birthday club includes Doris Lessing, Timothy Leary, and Julie Dash - with a reading from Lessing's "The Golden Notebook."

Thomas Edison applies for a patent for the electric light bulb, Ernest Hemingway publishes his classic novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and the birthday club includes Ursula Le Guin and Carrie Fisher - with a reading from Fisher's "Postcards From the Edge."

The U.S. approves the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. and UK set the modern border of Canada, and the U.N. tries to promote cultural expression as a counterweight to intellectual property. The birthday club includes Isabel de Chaurrier and Nellie McClung - with a reading from McClung's "Sowing Seeds in Danny."