Albums APHC Clips Audio Events Prairie Home Archives Songs Writer's Almanac
Writer's Almanac

To subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episode email, which includes the unedited text and audio from one daily anniversary episode selected from the archive, click here >>>

To browse archived episodes of The Writer’s Almanac from before 2017, click here >>>

• • • • •

To support The Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episodes newsletter, please consider “buying” a donation here >>>

You can also buy a paid subscription to the Anniversary Episode newsletter here >>>

Checks may be made out to Prairie Home Productions, LLC and mailed to:

Prairie Home Productions
P.O. Box 2090
Minneapolis, MN 55402

(Note: donations to LLCs are not tax-deductible)

• • • • •

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 21, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 21, 2026

Today is Father’s Day. The holiday that we celebrate on the third Sunday in June traces its roots to 1910, but the first recorded celebration of a holiday honoring fathers took place in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 20, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 20, 2026

It’s the birthday of poet Paul Muldoon, born in Portadown, Northern Ireland (1951). He published his first book, New Weather (1973), when he was 21 years old, and he has published more than 30 collections since then.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 19, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 19, 2026

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by the United States Senate on this date. It’s often viewed as the most important United States civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 18, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 18, 2026

On this day in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, in Belgium.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 17, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 17, 2026

It was on this day in 1901 that the first standardized tests were administered by the College Board. Before standardized tests, many universities had their own college entrance exams, and prospective students were required to come to campus for a week or more to take exams.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 16, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Today is Bloomsday, and James Joyce fans all over the world are celebrating. It commemorates the day on which the events of his novel Ulysses take place.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 15, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 15, 2026

It’s the birthday of advertising exec-turned-writer Ilene Beckerman, born in Manhattan (1935). She didn’t begin her writing career until the age of 60, and even then, she became a published author almost by accident.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 14, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 14, 2026

It’s the birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1811. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a prominent Congregationalist minister, and he was a great proponent of education.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 13, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 13, 2026

It’s the birthday of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, born in the Dublin suburb of Sandymount in 1865. His parents moved to London when he was only two years old, but he spent a lot of time in Sligo with his grandparents.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 12, 2026

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 12, 2026

Jun 12, 2026 Today is the birthday of diarist Anne Frank, born in Frankfurt, Germany (1929). Her father, Otto, moved the family to Amsterdam, joining an exodus of more than 300,000 other Jews who fled Germany between 1933 and 1939.

Read More