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.

The Gurindji get some of their land back, and the birthday club includes T. E. Lawrence, Georgette Heyer, Wallace Thurman, William Keepers Maxwell, Jr., Charles Bukowski, and Diana Wynne Jones - with a reading from Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph."

The movie "The Wizard of Oz" hits the silver screen, and the birthday club includes Walter Scott, Oscar Peterson, Stanley Milgram, and Stieg Larsson - with a reading from "Mrs. Dalloway," by Virginia Woolf.

U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, and the birthday club includes Ernest Thompson Seton, Ernest Thayer, David Crosby, Steve Martin, and Danielle Steele - with a reading from Steele's work.

King Louis XVI is arrested, "barbed-wire Sunday," and happy birthday to Lucy Stone - with a reading of Stone's position on speaking out against slavery.

Isaac Singer patents his sewing machine, Sue Hendrickson discovers the biggest and best skeleton of a T-Rex, and NAFTA happens. Happy birthdays to Radclyffe Hall, Erwin Schrodinger, and William Goldman - with a reading from "Writing is Work," by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Hedy Lamarr gets a patent and the birthday club includes Angus Wilson and Alex Haley - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."