The birthday club includes Walt Whitman, Fred Allen, Al Young, Svetlana Alexievich - with a reading from Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric."

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

Sojourner Truth gives her speech "Ain't I a Woman?" Igor Stravinsky premiers his "Rite of Spring" and Hillary and Norgay summit Mt. Everest. It is the birthday of Bob Hope and T. H. White - with a reading from White's "The Sword in the Stone."

The Sierra Club is written into existence, so is Amnesty International, and 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."

On this day, a look at the work of Julia Ward Howe, Dashiell Hammett, and Rachel Carson - with a reading from Carson's "Silent Spring."

The US House Un-American Activities Committee holds its first meeting and the birthday club includes Miles Davis, Jack Kevorkian, Levon Helm, Stevie Nicks, Alan Hollinghurst, Lauryn Hill, and Raina Telgemeier - with a reading from Hollinghurst's "The Line of Beauty."

The US Constitutional Convention begins, JFK calls for putting 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 Essays.

The Judgement of Paris puts Napa Valley wines on the oenophile map and the birthday club includes Bob Dylan, Michael Chabon, and Lorella Cedroni - with a reading from "Italian Critics of Capitalism," edited by Cedroni.

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."

Lewis and Clark start their exploration of the American West, the Associated Press gets its start, and Verdi premiers "Requiem." The birthday club includes Su Xun and Arthur Conan Doyle - with a reading from Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet."