A day of bravery: Finland breaks from Russia and adopts universal suffrage, Apollo 11 lands on the moon and people walk on it, Canada becomes only the third nation to legalize same-sex marriage, Gregor Mendel figures out genetics, Tom Crean, Edmund Hillary, and Julie Bindel - with a reading of "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley.

The first women’s rights convention in the U.S. began in Seneca Falls, N.Y., Evelyn Waugh publishes "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold," the first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head - using a CT scanner, and it's the birthday of Alice Dunbar Nelson - with a reading of her poem "If I had Known."

The Hough Riots that tore through Cleveland, Nadia Comăneci scores a perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics, William Makepeace Thackeray, Nelson Mandela, and Hunter S. Thompson - with a reading from Jean Ingelow's poem "Cold and Quiet."

Spain gives Florida to the U.S. - for a price, Willis Carrier draws up plans for the air conditioner, the Allies confer in Potsdam, Germany, Disneyland opens, and it's Phyllis Diller's birthday - with a reading of the poem "Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

The Atomic Age begins, "The Catcher in the Rye" is published, Apollo 11, and Ida B. Wells - with a reading of "Theme in Yellow," by Carl Sandburg.

Finding the Rosetta Stone, ending the Spanish Inquisition, "presenile dementia" gets a name, Clement Clark Moore, and Iris Murdoch - with a reading of "The Dreams Of My Heart" by Sara Teasdale.

Bastille Day and Fete de la Federation, President Adams signs the Sedition Act into law, the city of Chicago experienced its second catastrophic fire in three years, William Hanna, and Woody Guthrie - with a reading from his song, "Pretty Boy Floyd."

War correspondent George Weller, children's author and illustrator Marcia Brown, writer and film director Cameron Crowe - with a reading of "Miracles," by Jean Blewett.

Camille Desmoulins and the storming of the Bastille, the Battles of Kursk and Prokhorovka, the Newark Riots, Henry David Thoreau, and Pablo Neruda - with a reading from Thoreau's essay "Walking."

The Jay Treaty, The Burr-Hamilton Duel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was published on this day, "regulations are written in blood," the Srebenica Massacre, E. B. White, Suzanne Vega, and Jhumpa Lahiri - with a reading from "Here is New York."