John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr.(February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968)
American author John Steinbeck is well-known for his novels The Grapes of Wrath, Eastof Eden, and Of Mice and Men. He won both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes for his work. Steinbeck grew up in central California and attended Stanford University for several years. He later returned to California following failed attempts at writing jobs in New York and worked as a tour guide and caretaker at a fish hatchery in Tahoe City.
During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked on this day in 1940.
A German Luftwaffe high-performance medium bomber.
Novel published on this day in 1851.
American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner once stated he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written".
On this day in 1889, New York World reporter Elizabeth Cochrane (pen name Nellie Bly) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the trek the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.
On this day in 1943, Leonard Bernstein made his debut with the New York Philharmonic when he filled in for the ailing Bruno Walter prior to a nationally broadcast concert. Bernstein was 25 years old and was an assistant conductor at the time.
Leonard Bernstein(August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990)
Aaron Copland (November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990)
Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other music. He was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sign the Good Friday Agreement on this day in 1998.
The Good Friday Agreement brought to an end the 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as ‘The Troubles’.
It was on this day in 1912.
The novel’s first publication was on this day in 1925.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgeraldborn in St. Paul, Minnesota. (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940)
Fitzgerald died of a heart attack before he could complete The Last Tycoon. His manuscript, which included extensive notes for the unwritten part of the novel’s story, was edited by his friend, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, and published in 1941.
