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."

"Bleeding Kansas" begins, Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross, and the birthday club includes Alexander Pope, "Fats" Waller, and Harold Robbins - with a reading from Pope's "An Essay on Man."

William Shakespeare's sonnets are published, Levi Strauss gets the patent for denim blue jeans (with copper rivets that held the jeans together), and the birthday club includes Honore de Balzac and John Stuart Mill. This episode includes a reading of Shakespeare's sonnet number 17.

Centigrade fixes Celsius, Ohio is chartered, the world's first national park service is established, and the birthday club includes Jim Lehrer and Jodi Picoult - with a reading from Picoult's "Change of Heart."

Rhode Island bans slavery and the birthday club includes Omar Khayyam, Frank Capra, and Tina Fey - with a reading from Khayyam's "The Rubaiyat."

The Buttonwood Agreement, Brown v. Board of Education, and it is Dorothy Richardson's birthday - with a reading from her book "Pointed Roofs."

The Sedition Act goes into effect, the first Academy Award ceremony takes place, the U.S. Surgeon General warns that cigarettes are as addictive as Schedule I drugs, like heroin or cocaine. The birthday club includes Margaret Rey and Studs Terkel - with a reading from Terkel's "Touch and Go: A Memoir."

Robespierre's "Self-Denying Ordinance" goes into effect, Standard Oil is ruled an unreasonable monopoly, and the birthday club includes L. Frank Baum, Katherine Anne Porter, and Utah Philips - with a reading from Porter's "The Never-Ending Wrong."

Quite a birthday club, including George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Christine Brennan, Raphael Saadiq, and Mark Zuckerberg - with a reading from George Orwell's "1984."

The UK declares its neutrality in the U.S. Civil War, the MOVE bombing, and a reading from Armistead Maupin's "Logical Family: A Memoir."