Spain's Queen Isabella I gets a five-volume work on Spanish grammar, women in the U.S. earn the right to vote, Nabokov's "Lolita" is published, Steven Biko is arrested in South Africa, and Antonio Salieri and Margaret Murie - with a reading from "The Marrow of Tradition," written by Charles Chesnutt.

The first landing of British settlers on Roanoke Island, the first commercial steamboat makes its way north on the Hudson, George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is published, and happy birthdays to Fredrika Bremer, Mark Felt, and Jonathan Franzen - with a reading from "Bliss" by Katherine Mansfield.

A big day for aboriginal peoples' land rights, and quite the birthday club: T. E. Lawrence, Hal Foster, Georgette Heyer, Wallace Thurman, William Keepers Maxwell, Jr., Charles Bukowski, and Diana Wynne Jones - with a reading from Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, by T.E. Lawrence.

"The Wizard of Oz" hits the silver screen, Japan's Emperor Hirohito declares surrender, India gains its independence, the Beatles play Shea Stadium, Woodstock opens, the Big Ear has its "Wow!" event, the Murayama Statement formally apologizes for Japanese war crimes during WWII, the birthday club includes Walter Scott, Oscar Peterson, Stanley Milgram, and Stieg Larsson - with a reading from "Mrs. Dalloway," by Virginia Woolf.

A big birthday club today: the U.S. Social Security Act, Ernest Thompson Seton, Ernest Thayer, David Crosby, Steve Martin, Danielle Steel, and Gary Larson - with a reading from "Death Comes for the Archbishop," by Willa Cather.

French King Louis XVI gets arrested, it's a big day for the phone booth, the first woman enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps, "Barbed Wire Sunday" in Berlin, and happy birthday to American abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone - with a reading from “The Souls of Black Folk” by W. E. B. DuBois.

Isaac Singer gets a patent for his sewing machine, Sue Hendrickson discovers the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever found, NAFTA, and birthdays: Radclyffe Hall, Erwin Schrodinger, and William Goldman - with a reading from "Writing is Work," by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Hedy Lamarr and frequency hopping, happy birthdays to Angus Wilson and Alex Haley - with a reading from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

A special episode: a reading of Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour," in its entirety.

The U.S. and Canada sign a treaty to firm up the border and share water rights to the Great Lakes, Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden," Smokey Bear debuts, and WWII comes to a close - with a reading from "Red Badge of Courage," by Stephen Crane.