Louis B. Mayer announces the creation of the American Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the U.S. Surgeon General publishes the report "Smoking and Health," and happy birthday to Aldo Leopold - with a reading from Leopold's "The Sand County Almanac."

Thomas Paine publishes "Common Sense," "The New England Journal of Medicine" publishes "Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics," the birthday club includes Stephen Ambrose, Jim Croce, Donald Fagen, Pat Benatar, and Shawn Colvin - and a reading from Voltaire's "Candide."

The iPhone is introduced to the world, the birthday club includes Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Krantz, and Joan Baez - and a reading from de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex."

The first U.S. State of the Union, the birthday club includes Gypsy Rose Lee and Graham Chapman - and a reading from "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather.

Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and happy birthdays to Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Zora Neale Hurston - with a reading from Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

FDR delivers his "Four Freedoms" speech, and happy birthday to Charles Sumner and Alan Watts - and a reading from Watts.

Ford switches to an eight-hour workday with a pay bump to $5 a day, "Waiting for Godot" premieres, and the birthday club includes Umberto Eco and Hayao Miyazaki - and a reading from "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston.

Solomon Northup regains his freedom, happy birthday to Doris Kearns Goodwin - and a reading from "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens.

Quite the birthday club: J. R. R. Tolkien, Anna Stevenson, and Stephen Stills - and a reading from "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," by Agatha Christie.

The Palmer Raids sweep the U.S., happy birthday to environmentalist Robert Marshall - and a reading from the U.S. Wilderness Act of 1964.