The birthday club includes Countee Cullen, Mel Blanc, James Chaney, and Idina Menzel - with a reading of Cullen's "Saturday's Child."

Sojourner Truth gives her "Ain't I A Woman?" speech, Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" premiers in Paris, and Hillary and Norgay reach the peak of Everest. And happy birthday to Bob Hope - with a reading from T. H. White's "The Sword in the Stone."

The Sierra Club is founded, and the opinion piece that launched Amnesty International is published. The birthday club includes Ian Fleming, T-Bone Walker, and Maeve Binchy - with a reading from John Muir's "My First Summer in the Sierra."

The birthday club includes Julia Ward Howe, Dashiell Hammett, and Rachel Carson - with a reading from Carson's "Silent Spring."

The House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities holds its first session, and the birthday club includes Miles Davis, Levon Helm, Stevie Nicks, Lauryn Hill, and Raina Telgemeier. Today's reading is from Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's "Immortal Love."

The 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention, JFK's call to put a man on the moon, and "Star Wars" hits movie screens. The birthday club includes Ralph Waldo Emerson and Rosario Castellanos - with a reading from Emerson's "Self-Reliance."

The Judgment of Paris, and a birthday club of Bob Dylan and Michael Chabon - with a reading from Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay."

The birthday club includes Margaret Fuller, Isabella Ford, Par Lagerkvist, Scott O'Dell, Margaret Wise Brown, and Mitch Albom - with a reading from Fuller's "Woman in the 19th Century."

The Corps of Discovery sets off, the Associated Press takes shape, the Wright Bros. get the patent for their flying machine, and Verdi's "Requiem" premieres in Milan. Happy birthdays to Su Xun and Arthur Conan Doyle - with a reading from Doyle's "A Case of Identity."

"Bleeding Kansas" comes to Lawrence, Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross, and the birthday club includes Alexander Pope, Fats Waller, and Harold Robbins - with a reading from Pope's "An Essay on Man."