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.

Robert E. Lee tries to quit, Andrew Johnson freed his slaves, Edison gets a patent for the mimeograph, WWII Allies sign the London Charter: the parameters of the Nuremberg Trials, and it is Sara Teasdale's birthday - with a reading of Teasdale's poem "Buried Love."

President George Washington puts down the Whiskey Rebellion, Thor Heyerdahl crashes his raft, the Kon Tiki, to prove a point, Pharmacologist Frances Kelsey prevents the drug thalidomide from being used in the U.S. in the 1960s, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and we celebrate the birthdays of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Ralph Bunche - with a reading from "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the U.S. Voting Rights Act, the first appearance of "www," and today's birthday club includes Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Susie Taylor - with a reading from "All Quiet on the Western Front," by Erich Maria Remarque.

Freedom of the press in the American colonies, the U.S. levies its first income tax, and quite a birthday club: Guy de Maupassant, Mary Ritter Beard, and Wendell Berry - with a reading from Maupassant's "Bel Ami."

Dom Perignon, The Saturday Evening Post, the Fairness Doctrine, inventing the pencil, and celebrating birthdays today: Percy Bysshe Shelley and Robert Hayden - with a reading from "The Age of Innocence," by Edith Wharton.

Columbus sets sail, the first letter from N America is sent to Europe, and today is the birthday of Ernie Pyle and Leon Uris - with a reading from "Here Is Your War," by Ernie Pyle.

Signing day for the U.S. Declaration of Independence, first U.S. census, chain reactions, and James Baldwin's birthday - with a reading from Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

The British Empire abolishes slavery, Henry Perky patents shredded wheat, Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman in the U.S. to earn her pilot’s license, "Dune," by Frank Herbert is published, Francis Scott Key, Herman Melville, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott are in the birthday club - with a reading from Melville's "Moby Dick."

Daniel Defoe gets locked in a pillory, English sailors mourn the loss of their rum ration, and we mark the birthdays of Cuban pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes, Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi, and English author J. K. Rowling - with a reading from "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe.