George Washington takes the oath for U.S. President, the U.S. acquires the Louisiana Purchase, and Niagara Falls becomes the United States' first state park. Happy birthdays to John Crowe Ransom, Annie Dillard, and Jane Campion - with a reading from Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."

Happy birthdays to Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Krouse Rosenthal - with a reading from Rosenthal's "Modern Love" essay in The New York Times, titled "You May Want to Marry My Husband."

During the U.S. war in Vietnam, Muhammad Ali refuses to be drafted into the U.S. Army, and happy birthdays to Harper Lee and Terry Pratchett - with a reading from Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird."

Happy birthday to Mary Wollstonecraft - with a reading from her landmark work, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman."

Napoleon Bonaparte pardons French emigres, and the birthday club includes Ma Rainey, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Bernard Malamud - with a reading from Malamud's "The Magic Barrel."

The double-helix structure of DNA is described for the first time, the U.S. patent is issued for the microchip, and happy birthday to blues guitarist Albert King - with a reading from Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina."

It is the birthday of the U.S. Library of Congress, as well as Anthony Trollope and Robert Penn Warren - with a reading from Trollope's "The Way We Live Now."

The birthday club includes George Steiner, Jim Fixx, Roy Orbison, and Victoria Glendinning - with a reading from Steiner's "Lessons of the Masters."

Earth Day becomes a thing, and the birthday club includes Henry Fielding, Immanuel Kant, Vladimir Nabokov, and Louise Gluck - with a reading from Fielding's "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling."

Happy birthdays to Charlotte Bronte and John Muir - with a reading from Bronte's "Jane Eyre."