The Nine-Day Queen Lady Jane Grey, Louis XVI demonstrates why it's not so good to be the King, Alexander Mackenzie becomes the first non-indigenous person to reach the Pacific overland, French secret agents bomb and sink the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, Marcel Proust, and Alice Munro - with a reading from Proust's "In Search of Lost Time."

The first law in the British Empire to free slaves, paying off the U.S. debt in 1795, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, Elias Howe, and Oliver Sacks - with a reading of Dorothy Parker's poem "Bohemia."

The Hamburg Massacre, The first issue of The Wall Street Journal, The Dow Jones Industrial Average posts its lowest close in the 20th Century, Self-Determination for Native Americans, and the birthday of civil-rights activist Ruby Sales - with a reading of "Hope" by Emily Dickinson.

The Anti-Abolitionist Riots in New York City, the first nationwide draft in the U.S., Florenz Ziegfeld produces his first "Follies," entire loaves of sliced bread became available on this day in 1928, and it's the birthday of Gustav Mahler - with a reading of "Thoughts," by Myra Viola Wilds.

Using a vaccine, Louis Pasteur cured a rabies patient for the first time, Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, and it's the birthdays of Marc Chagall, Frida Kahlo, Bill Haley, and Nanci Griffith - with a reading from the poem “Shades of My Gloom,” by Marc Chagall.

Isaac Newton publishes "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" and Frederick Douglass gave his speech “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” Also in this episode: the National Labor Relations Act, Spam, the bikini, Robbie Robertson, and Bill Patterson - with a reading from Douglass' speech, "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?”

The writing that influenced the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the remarkable achievement of the document itself - with a reading from the letter recalling the solemn

George Washington's first battle ends in his surrender, but 21 years later - to the day - he assumes command of the Continental Army, the bloody Battle of Gettysburg ends, the Falls Curfew, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman - with a reading from "The Yellow Wall-Paper."

Johann Sebastian Bach's "Magnificat," dissolving political bands, the Amistad, "Finlandia," by Jean Sibelius, The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, Hermann Hesse, and Thurgood Marshall - with a reading from Hesse's “On Little Joys.”

The Battle of Gettysburg begins, Canada becomes a nation, the Battle of the Somme begins, too, "Inundation Day," and George Sand's birthday - with a reading from "Indiana."