"Moby Dick" is published in London, Phillis Wheatley is freed, and birthdays of Isabel Briggs Meyers, Martha Burk, Ntozake Shange, Wendy Wasserstein, and Terry McMillan - with a reading from "To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth," written by Phillis Wheatley.

Marconi begins the first commercial, transatlantic wireless service. Quite the birthday club: Elinor Glyn, Jerry Siegel, Arthur Miller, George Mackay Brown, Ariel Levy, and Randall Munroe - with a reading from "A Time to Keep," by George Mackay Brown.

This is a fun one, mostly about the Cardiff Giant.

The Julian calendar starts being replaced by the Gregorian calendar, and birthday celebrations for P. G. Wodehouse, Mario Puzo, Italo Calvino, and Eugene Patterson - with a reading from "My Many Jeeves," written by P. G. Wodehouse.

George Eastman patents his paper roll photographic film, Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier, Martin Luther King, Jr., Aung San Suu Kyi, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin are awarded Nobel Peace Prizes, and happy birthday to Katherine Mansfield and Usher - with a reading from "At the Bay," written by Katherine Mansfield.

Unintentional birthday club edition, featuring Mary Kingsley, Arna Bontemps, and Paul Simon - with a reading of "A Black Man Talks of Reaping," written by Arna Bontemps.

Putting an end to the Salem Witch Trials, the U.S. gets its first asylum for the mentally ill, The Criminal Tribes Act in British India, Desmond Doss becomes the only conscientious objector to win the U.S. Medal of Honor, a TV debate over same-sex marriage causes nearly 50,000 people to resign from the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and happy birthday to Kamini Roy - with a reading from "The Awakening," by Kate Chopin.

The intolerance and race riots that led to the "Gentlemen's Agreement" of 1907, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed for the first time, and a unique birthday club made up of Elmore Leonard and Thich Nhat Hanh - with a reading from "Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Bronte.

Spiro Agnew resigns, and the birthday club includes Louise Mack, Harold Pinter, Lily Tuck, and John Prine - with a reading from "A Woman's Experiences in the Great War: An Australian Author's Clandestine Journey Through War-Torn Belgium," by Louise Mack.

Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony, France abolishes the death penalty, "Phantom of the Opera" premiered in London, Malala Yousafzai is shot by the Taliban in Pakistan, and happy birthday to John Lennon - with a reading from "The Age of Innocence," by Edith Wharton.