Today's Reading:"Schoolboys with Dog, Winter" by William Matthews from SELECTED POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS 1969-1991, published by Houghton Mifflin (1992).
It's the birthday of actor and director John Cassavetes, who acted in films such as ROSEMARY'S BABY in order to finance his own films. He was born in New York City in 1929.
Physicist Henry W. Kendall, who helped discover evidence confirming the existence of quarks, was born on this day in Boston, 1926.
The first Christmas Seals went on sale on this day in 1907 in Wilmington, Delaware.
It's the birthday of computer pioneer Grace Brewster Murray Hopper in New York City in 1906. She devised the first computer programs and coined the term "bug" for mysterious computer failures when a two-inch moth caused problems inside the circuit of a calculating device.
Sad-faced hobo clown Emmet Kelly, also known as Weary Willie, was born in Sedan, Kansas, on this day in 1898.
Frozen foods pioneer Clarence Birdseye was born on this day in Brooklyn, New York, 1886.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" was published on this day in 1854.
Joel Chandler Harris, creator of the Uncle Remus tales of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit, was born in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1848.
New York's first daily newspaper, THE AMERICAN MINERVA, was established by Noah Webster on this day in 1793.
It's the birthday of poet John Milton (PARADISE LOST; SAMSON AGONISTES), born in London on this day in 1608.
Today's Reading:"The Wind Took Up the Northern Things" by Emily Dickinson.
The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies will be held today, as they are annually on the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. The Peace Prize is presented at Oslo City Hall and the five other prizes, for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics will be presented in a ceremony in Stockholm.
It's the birthday of director and playwright Kenneth Branagh (DEAD AGAIN), born in Belfast, Ireland, 1960.
Composer, conductor Morton Gould was born on this day in Richmond Hill, New York, 1913.
On this day in 1910, Puccini's opera LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Toscanini conducting.
It's the birthday of composer and organist Olivier Messiaen born in Avignon, France, 1908.
It's the birthday of English novelist and poet Rumer Godden, born in Sussex on this day in 1907.
Children's author Mary Norton (BONFIRES AND BROOMSTICKS; THE BORROWERS) was born on this day in London in 1903.
It's the birthday of Nobel Prize winning poet Nelly Sachs ("O the chimneys"), born in Berlin in 1891.
It's the birthday in 1879 of English artist E. H. Shepard, who illustrated A.A. Milne's book WINNIE THE POOH, and Kenneth Grahame's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.
On this day in 1869, Wyoming became the first U.S. territory to grant women the right to vote. There were few women in Wyoming at the time.
It's the birthday of poet Emily (Elizabeth) Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830. Over a 1,000 poems were found in her bureau drawer after her death; only seven were published during her lifetime.
Today's Reading:"The Old Words" by David Wagoner from COLLECTED POEMS 1956-1976, published by Poetry Miscellany.
It's the birthday of novelist Thomas McGuane (THE SPORTING CLUB; THE BUSHWACKED PIANO; NINETY-TWO IN THE SHADE), born in Wyandotte, Michigan, in 1939.
Novelist and poet Jim Harrison (LEGENDS OF THE FALL) was born on this day in Grayling, Michigan, 1937.
It's the birthday of classic blues shouter Big Mama (Willie Mae) Thornton, born in Montgomery, Alabama, 1926.
Short story writer Grace Paley was born on this day in Bronx, New York, 1922.
It's the birthday of Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor when censors intercepted a letter with criticisms of Josef Stalin. He later wrote about the labor camps in his book ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH.
Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz (CAIRO TRILOGY: PALACE WALK; PALACE OF DESIRE; SUGAR STREET) was born on this day in Cairo in 1911.
It's the birthday of cartoonist Marjorie H. Buell, creator of comic strip character Little Lulu, born in Philadelphia, 1904.
On this day in 1882, the first performance in a theatre lit by electric lights took place at Boston's Bijou Theatre.
Today's Reading:"To Hayden Carruth" by Wendell Berry from ENTRIES, published by Pantheon Books (1994).
One of the inventors of the microchip, Robert N. Noyce, was born on this day in Iowa, 1927.
It's the birthday in Hoboken, New Jersey, of Frank Sinatra, 1915. He was 21 years old when he decided to become a singer after seeing a performance by Bing Crosby
The first transatlantic wireless signal was sent from Cornwall, England, to St. John's Newfoundland, where Guglielmo Marconi received it on an antenna kept aloft by a kite.
Writer, editor and civil rights activist Lillian Eugenia Smith was born on this day in Jasper, Florida, 1897. Her book STRANGE FRUIT was declared obscene by the Postal Service for its depiction of an interracial love affair.
The great American civil rights leader Arthur Garfield Hays was born on this day in Rochester, New York, 1881.
French writer Gustave Flaubert (MADAME BOVARY) was born on this day in Rouen, France, 1821.
On this day in 1792, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven paid about 19 cents for his first music lesson from Franz Joseph Haydn in Vienna.
American statesman John Jay, one of the authors of the FEDERALIST PAPERS, was born on this day in New York City in 1745.
Today's Reading:"Silence" by Hayden Carruth from COLLECTED SHORTER POEMS 1946-1991, published by Copper Canyon Press.
Today is Santa Lucia Day, a nationwide celebration in Sweden honoring the Roman maiden Lucia.
Poet, novelist, painter Kenneth Patchen was born on this day in Niles, Ohio, 1911.
It's the birthday of playwright, journalist Marc Connelly (GREEN PASTURES) born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 1890.
The Union Army of the Potomac suffered a bloody defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia on this day in 1862.
Educator Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Harvard's president for 24 years, was born on this day in Boston, 1856.
It's the birthday of the man who wrote the lyrics for "O Little Town of Bethlehem," Phillilps Brooks, born in Boston in 1835.
German writer Heinrich Heine was born on this day in Duseldorf in 1797.
Today's Reading:"Winter" by Thomas Campion (1567-1619).
Today is the start of Halcyon Days, days of peace, traditionally the seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice.
It's the birthday of writer Shirley Jackson whose short stories, including "Lottery," often appeared in THE NEW YORKER. She was born in San Francisco in 1916.
Roald Amundsen and his troupe of four explorers discovered the South Pole on this day in 1911.
Geneticist Edward L. Tatum, who helped show that individual genes are coded messages that specify the make-up of proteins, was born on this day in Boulder, Colorado, 1909.
Roger Fry, who directed the Metropolitan Museum of Art and discovered the work of French painter Paul Cezanne, was born on this day in London in 1866.
Lawyer Louis Marshall, who argued important cases on religious freedom during the 1920s, was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1856.
President George Washington died on this day in 1799 at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
John Bloomfield Jervis, who helped forge new construction techniques in canals, railroads and water-supply system, was born in Huntington, New York, 1795.
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was born today in Knudstrup, Denmark, 1546. He accurately positioned more than 777 fixed stars at a time before the invention of the telescope.
Today's Reading:"Minstrels and Maids" by William Morris (1834-1896).
Today in Boston there will be a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party at the city's Old South Meeting House.
Writer Edna O'Brien (THE COUNTRY GIRLS; HOUSE OF SPLENDID ISOLATION), whose books have sometimes been banned in Ireland for their sexual explicitness, was born in Tuamgraney, Ireland, on this day in 1930.
It's the birthday of writer Betty Smith (A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN), born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1896.
Playwright Maxwell Anderson (WHAT PRICE GLORY?) was born today in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, 1888.
Architect and furniture designer Kaare Klint, who almost single-handedly created the look of modern Scandinavian furniture design, was born on this day in Copenhagen, 1888.
Charles E. Duryea, who with his brother, Frank, invented the first care built and driven in America, was born in Canton, Illinois, in 1861.
French civil engineer Gustave Eiffel, who designed the Eiffel Tower and the framework for the Statue of Liberty, was born on this day in Dijon, France, 1832.
Jane Austen's novel EMMA was published on this day in 1815.
The Bill of rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, became effective today in 1791.
