The birthday club includes Leonora Carrington, Ram Dass, Merle Haggard, and Homero Aridjis - with a reading from Carrington's artist notes.

The Petition of Compromise is sent to Spain and sparks the 80 Years War, Margaret Sanger establishes the American Birth Control League, and the birthday club includes Algernon Charles Swinburne, Barbara Holland, and Pharrell Williams - with a reading from Swinburne's "The Garden of Proserpine."

NATO forms and it is the birthdays of Muddy Waters and Maya Angelou - with a reading from Angelou's "Still, I Rise."

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrates with striking workers in Memphis, TN. The Panama Papers are published and the birthday club includes Washington Irving and Jane Goodall - with a reading from Goodall's "Reason for Hope."

The birthday club includes Giacomo Casanova, Hans Christian Andersen, Emile Zola, and Camille Paglia - with a reading from Casanova's "The Story of My Life."

It is what T. S. Eliot called "the cruelest month," and April Fool's Day, so we look at the Day's possible origins. Sergei Rachmaninoff and Milan Kundera were born on this day - and a reading from Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

The Motion Picture Production Code goes into effect in the US, the Civilian Conservation Corps is established, and the birthday club includes Johann Sebastian Bach, John Fowles, Judith Rossner, and Marge Piercy - with a reading from Fowles' "The Magus."

The US buys Alaska from Russia and the birthday club includes Anna Sewell, Carl Lutz, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, Shahla Sherkat, Marie-Christine Koundja, and Tobias Hill - with a reading from Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism."

Queen Victoria establishes the nation of Canada and Queen Elizabeth II ends the British Parliament's ability to make or amend laws in Canada. The birthday club includes Sheila Kitzinger, Eric Idle, Alec Wilkinson, Jo Ann Mapson, and Evelyn C. White - with a reading from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

The birthday club includes Maxim Gorky, Nelson Algren, Iris Chang, and Jennifer Weiner - with a reading from Algren's "Chicago: City on the Make."