The French National Assembly approves "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," John Fitch gets the U.S. patent for the steamboat, and Quebec legislates French is the official language of the Canadian Province. The birthday club includes Zona Gale, Caroline Pafford Miller, and Ben Bradlee - with a reading from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Great Moon Hoax begins, the U.S. National Park Service is created, and the birthday club includes Walt Kelly and Leonard Bernstein - with a reading from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."

Nesmeterakhem writes in Egyptian hieroglyphics for the last time, the Treaty of Cordoba is signed, and the Panic of 1857 begins. Happy birthdays to Howard Zinn, Paolo Coelho, and Ava DuVernay - with a reading from Willa Cather's "My Antonia."

England's King George proclaims that the American colonists were revolting, the "Salad Bowl" strike begins in California, and the World Wide Web is opened to the world. It is the birthday of William Ernest Henley - with a reading from the Duchess of Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish.

The Siege of Leningrad begins and the birthday club includes Claude Debussy, Dorothy Parker, Ray Bradbury, and Annie Proulx - with a reading from Parker's "Coda."

British explorer James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Virginia, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates begin. Today's reading is from "Minnie's Sacrifice," written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

Charles Darwin publishes his theory of natural selection, the end of the U.S. Civil War is declared, and Canada seriously considers its dissolution. The birthday club includes H. P. Lovecraft, Tarjei Vesaas, and Wilhelm Moberg - with a reading from Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

The eastern U.S. learns "there's gold in them thar hills" in California, the liberation of Paris begins, and happy birthday to Ogden Nash - with a reading from "The Bell in the Fog & Other Stories," by Gertrude Atherton.

The Spanish language gets its grammar rules, women in the U.S. get the right to vote, Nabokov's "Lolita" is published in the U.S., and anti-Apartheid activist Steven Biko is arrested in South Africa. Happy birthday to Antonio Salieri and Margaret Murie - with a reading from "The Marrow of Tradition," by Charles Chesnutt.

Sir Walter Raleigh tries to create the colony of Roanoke in the New World, George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is published, and the birthday club includes Fredrika Bremer, Mark Felt, and Jonathan Franzen - with a reading from "Bliss," by Katherine Mansfield.