The birthday club includes Rudyard Kipling, Bo Diddley, Patti Smith, and Douglas Coupland - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility."

Vaclav Havel is elected President of Czechoslovakia and the language Akkala Sami is considered extinct. The birthday club includes Rick Danko, Marianne Faithfull, and Paula Poundstone - with a reading from "Around the World in 80 Days," by Jules Verne.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act is signed into law and happy birthdays to Catharine Maria Sedgwick and Charlie Pierce - with a reading from Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest."

The Flushing Remonstrance, Charles Darwin sets sail on the ship HMS Beagle, and the musical play "Show Boat" premiers on Broadway. Happy birthdays to Cokie Roberts and Sarah Vowell - with a reading from J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan."

Kwanzaa is celebrated for the first time, the Supreme Soviet votes to dissolve itself and the Soviet Union, and happy birthdays to Mary Somerville, Henry Miller, and David Sedaris - with a reading from Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman."

Happy birthdays to Sir Isaac Newton and Carlos Castaneda - with a reading from The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

A reading of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” written by Clement Clarke Moore.

Jane Austen publishes "Emma," gender equality takes a step forward in the UK, and the birthday club includes Norman Maclean and Jorma Kaukonen - with a reading from Maclean's "A River Runs through It."

Beethoven gives the performance of his career, Mao sends China's urban teenagers to be educated by rural poverty, and Doctors Without Borders is founded - with a reading from Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."

Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" premiers, the crossword first appears, and happy birthdays to Maria Cadilla and Frank Zappa - with a reading from Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People."