ASCAP takes shape, the Dresden Fire Bombing begins, Australia apologizes for its mistreatment of Aboriginal populations, and the birthday club includes Eleanor Farjeon and Kate Roberts - with a reading from Mary Shelley's masterpiece "Frankenstein."

Quite the birthday club: Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and Judy Blume - with a reading from Lincoln's second inaugural address.

The first accusation of Gerrymandering, the Flint "Sit Down" Strike, the Seabed Arms Control Treaty, and happy birthdays to Joy Williams and Mo Willems - with a reading from Williams' "The Quick and the Dead."

Happy birthdays to William Allen White and Boris Pasternak - with a reading from Pasternak's classic "Doctor Zhivago."

Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera, “Falstaff,” premiers at La Scala in Milan, and the birthday club includes Thomas Paine, Carole King, and Alice Walker - with a reading from Paine’s “The Rights of Man.”

Happy birthdays to Jules Verne and Kate Chopin - with a reading from Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas."

Emile Zola goes on trial for revealing the Dreyfus Affair, the U.S. imposes a more than 45-year embargo on Cuba, the Maastricht Treaty is signed creating the European Union, Mississippi ratifies the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and the birthday club includes Charles Dickens, Laura Ingall's Wilder, and Sinclair Lewis - with a reading from Lewis' "Babbitt."

Queen Elizabeth II becomes ruler of England, and the birthday club includes Francois Truffaut, Bob Marley, Natalie Cole, and Michael Pollan - with a reading of the poem "Inventory," by Dorothy Parker.

U.S. Steel is formed, the Immigration Act of 1917, United Artists is launched, happy birthday to William S. Burroughs - with a reading from "The Letters of Madame De Sevigne to Her Daughter," by Marie Rabutin-Chantal De Sevigne.

George Washington is elected President of the U.S., France abolishes slavery, and happy birthday to Betty Friedan - with a reading from Kate Chopin's "The Awakening."