“Good literature continually read for pleasure must, let us hope, do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.”--A.E. Housman, born on this day in 1859.
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March 24, 1919
It was on this day in 1882, German doctor and microbiologist Robert Koch announced that he had found the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis…
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Today marks the first day in 1942 when the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to internment camps. Between…
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Today would have been the 93rd birthday of Stephen Sondheim. The American composer and lyricist was born in 1930 to unhappy people. At 10 years old he…
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The Alabama Freedom March began on this date in 1965. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and 3,200 demonstrators set off on a 54-mile march from Selma…
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“1960” from The Rain in Portugal. Random House “Banana School” from Whale Day and Other Poems. Random House "House" from The Trouble with Poetry: And…
Today is the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Emily Dickinson said: “A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome…
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The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor