Scottish poet Robert Burns, the playwright W. Somerset Maugham, and the insightful writer Virginia Woolf were born on this day - and we hear a reading of Burns poem "A Red, Red Rose."

Born on this day: Signe Rink and Edith Wharton - with a reading from Wharton's "The Age of Innocence."

Francois Rabelais publishes the book that became central to Enlightenment thinking, Blaise Pascal writes the first of his "Provincial Letters," and this episode includes a reading from Agatha Christie's "Murder in Mesopotamia."

Today marks the anniversaries of the births of the Romantic-era poet Lord Byron and the pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard. This episode also includes a reading from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein."

The birthday club includes Noe Ito and Elaine Showalter - with a reading from the book co-written by John Stuart Mill and his wife Harriet Taylor Mill: "On the Subjection of Women."

It is the anniversary of the births of George Burns, David Lynch, and Nancy Kress - with a reading from Kress's "Brain Rose."

It is the anniversary of the births of Edgar Allan Poe and Patricia Highsmith as well as the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union. This episode includes a reading from one of Poe's letters to a friend.

Japan issues its 21 Demands of China and the birthday club includes Demaris Cudworth, Lady Masham and Montesquieu - with a reading from Montesquieu's "Persian Letters."

The U.S. buys the Virgin Islands from Denmark, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns of the "military-industrial complex" in his farewell address, and the birthday club includes fellwalker Alfred Wainwright and author Sebastian Junger - with a reading from Wainwright's "A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells."

Miguel Cervantes publishes "Don Quixote," Virginia adopts the Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, and the birthday club includes Susan Sontag and Rebecca Stead - with a reading from Stead's "When You Reach Me."