Japan attacks the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, and it is the birthday of Willa Cather - with a reading from Cather's "My Antonia."

Georgia becomes the 27th and last state needed to ratify the U.S. Constitution's 13th Amendment, Theodore Roosevelt adds his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Irish Free State is created, and the birthday club includes Cornelia Meigs, Ira Gershwin, and Steven Wright - with a reading from Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth."

The National Council of Negro Women is founded, London's Great Smog, the Montgomery bus boycott begins, and the birthday club includes Christina Rossetti, Walt Disney, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Richard, and Joan Didion - with a reading from "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Bronte.

"The Observer" and "Los Angeles Times" publish their first editions, North Carolina ratifies the 13th Amendment, the Million Dollar Quartet records their jam session, more than 800 students are arrested for demonstrating for free speech on the campus of UC Berkeley, and happy birthday to Rainer Maria Rilke - with a reading from his "Letters to a Young Poet."

The birthday club includes Octavia Hill, Joseph Conrad, and Gussie Davis - with a reading from "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin.

Sweden approves its Freedom of the Press Act, and the birthday club includes David Macaulay, Elizabeth Berg, George Saunders, and Ann Patchett - with a reading from "Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The draft lottery, and the birthday club includes Jan Brett, Candace Bushnell, and Jo Walton - with a reading from "Frankenstein," by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Ann Hodges gets hit by a meteorite, and the birthday club includes some serious heavy hitters: Mark Twain, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Shirley Chisholm, and Allan Sherman - with a reading from Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson."

The Beatles release "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," Atari releases "Pong," and the birthday club includes Louisa May Alcott, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle - with a reading from Alcott's "Little Women."

The Times of London starts using a steam-powered printing press, and happy birthdays to Berry Gordy and Rita Mae Brown - with a reading from "The Country of the Pointed Firs," by Sarah Orne Jewett.