The first treaty between native Americans and European settlers, the first patent for the laser, a big win for reproductive freedom at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the birthday club includes Louis L'Amour, Stephen Sondheim, George Benson, and Andrew Lloyd Webber - and a reading from "Middlemarch," by George Eliot.

Tennessee prohibits the teaching of evolution, the first comic-con, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate, and the birthday club includes Dorothea Beale, Son House, Forrester Mars, Senior, and Solomon Burke - with a reading from Dorothea Beale's "Work and Play in Girls’ Schools."

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published, so is Einstein's theory of relativity, and the birthday club includes Ovid, Anne Bradstreet, and Carl Reiner - and a reading from Ovid's "The Art of Love."

England's House of Commons abolishes the House of Lords, and happy birthdays to Minna Canth, Philip Roth, and Clara Breed - with a reading from Breed's article "Americans With the Wrong Ancestors."

The New York 'Conspiracy' of 1741, and the birthday club includes Wilfred Owen, Unita Blackwell, Frances Cress Welsing - and a reading of Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth."

Happy birthdays to Bayard Rustin and Nat "King" Cole - and a reading from "The Secret Garden," by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Today's birthday club includes Ethel Anderson, Eric P. Kelley, Ursula Goodenough, and Jorge Ramos - and a reading from "The Christmas Nightingale," written by Eric P. Kelly.

The Ides of March, the Royal Declaration of Indulgences, the Presidential proclamation that "We shall overcome," and happy birthdays to Lightin' Hopkins and Kate Bornstein - with a reading from Alexandre Dumas' "The Man in the Iron Mask."

Eli Whitney gets the patent for the cotton gin, Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado" premiers, U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt creates Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, and the birthday club includes Isabella Beeton, Albert Einstein, Billy Crystal, and Jerry Greenfield - with a reading from Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."

The Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves, and the birthday club includes Janet Flanner, L. Ron Hubbard, Edward O'Hare, and Al Jaffee - and a reading from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland."