The U.S. transcontinental telegraph line goes live, the first time someone goes over Niagara Falls and survives, and Iceland's women go on strike. And happy birthdays to Sarah Josepha Hale and Alexandra David-Neel - with a reading from George MacDonald's "At the Back of the North Wind."

The first national convention on Women’s Rights begins and happy birthdays to Ellie Greenwich and Michael Crichton - with a reading from Crichton's "The Lost World."

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins and the birthday club includes Dorris Lessing, Timothy Leary, and Julie Dash - with a reading from Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Thomas Edison applies for his patent for the incandescent lightbulb and Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" is published. The birthday club includes Ursula Le Guin and Carrie Fisher - with a reading from Fisher's "Postcards From the Edge."

The Louisiana Purchase is ratified, the U.N. approves the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and the birthday club includes Isabelle de Charrière and Nellie McClung - with a reading from McClung's "Sowing Seeds in Danny."

American colonists, helped by the French, won their independence from the British, "Black Monday," and the birthday club includes Miguel Ángel Asturias, Walter Munk, John le Carre, Philip Pullman, and Tracy Chevalier - with a reading from Willa Cather's "My Antonia."

Herman Melville's "The Whale" is first published and Phyllis Wheatley is freed. The birthday club includes Isabel Briggs Meyers, Martha Burk, Ntozake Shange, Wendy Wasserstein, and Terry McMillan - with a reading from Wheatley's "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth."

Marconi begins the service sending wireless signals across the North Atlantic and the birthday club includes Elinor Glyn, Jerry Siegel, Arthur Miller, George Mackay Brown, Ariel Levy, and Randall Munroe - with a reading from Brown's "A Time to Keep."

The Cardiff Giant is "discovered," and becomes the quintessential story of our time.

The switch between the Julian and Gregorian calendars begins and happy birthdays to P. G. Wodehouse, Mario Puzo, Italo Calvino, and Eugene Patterson - with a reading from Wodehouse's "My Man Jeeves."