The birthday club includes J. R. R. Tolkien, Anne Stevenson, and Stephen Stills - with a reading from Agatha Christie's "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd."

The Palmer Raids sweep up thousands of foreign-born U.S. citizens and it is the birthday of Robert Marshall - with a reading from the 1964 Wilderness Act.

The U.S. bans importation of enslaved people and - nearly 60 years later - enacts the Emancipation Proclamation. The birthday club includes Maria Edgeworth, E. M. Forster, and J. D. Salinger - with a reading from Edgeworth's "Castle Rackrent."

Thomas Edison unveils his incandescent light and the birthday club includes Simon Wiesenthal and John Denver - with a reading from "The Liberty Of Man, Woman And Child," by Robert Ingersoll.

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.