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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Posted on May 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1940 that Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons. Three days earlier, he had taken over the job from Neville Chamberlain, who resigned. Chamberlain was a controversial leader — he had signed the Munich Agreement in September of 1938, ceding a region of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, a decision that Churchill highly criticized at the time.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 12, 2025

Posted on May 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, born in London (1828). Rossetti studied art at the Royal Academy and was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of artists who rejected any art from Raphael onward. They wanted to return to the lush colors and passionate subjects of 15th-century Italian painting.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 11, 2025

Posted on May 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Mari Sandoz, born near Hay Springs, Nebraska (1896). Her father, a Swiss homesteader, was a harsh and bitter man, and her mother was cold and remote. Sandoz was the oldest child of six, and was constantly working around the house, but she still found moments here and there to scribble down her tales. She published her first story when she was 11 years old, and when her father found out, he beat her and locked her in the cellar, because he considered artists and writers “the maggots of society.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 10, 2025

Posted on May 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Fred Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz, in Omaha, Nebraska (1899). He started dancing when he was four, and when he was six he formed an act with his sister, Adele, which became a popular vaudeville attraction on Broadway. When Adele retired in 1932, Astaire made a screen test.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 9, 2025

Posted on May 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of playwright Alan Bennett, born in Leeds, England (1934). He grew up in an apartment above his father’s butcher shop. He said of his life growing up in Yorkshire: “It’s partly sentimental I’m sure, but it’s also partly the way of talking. I’ve always thought this, the Yorkshire and Lancashire way of talking is inherently dramatic. I think it’s a Germanic thing but the point of a sentence is often kept till the end which is ideal for comedy writing.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 8, 2025

Posted on May 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Pat Barker, born in Thornaby-on-Tees, England (1943). She grew up poor in northern working-class England. She was born to a single mother and never knew her father (her mother wasn’t sure who he was, although for years she lied to her daughter and claimed that he had been a pilot killed in World War II).

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Posted on May 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1952, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer first presented the concept of the integrated circuit, also known as the microchip, which is the basis for all modern electronic equipment.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Posted on May 6, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1994 that the Channel Tunnel (“Chunnel”) opened, connecting Britain and France via an underground tunnel beneath the English Channel. It was the first time Britain had been connected to the European mainland since the last Ice Age, more than 8,000 years ago.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 5, 2025

Posted on May 5, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, born in Copenhagen (1813), the son of a wealthy wool merchant who left his son enough money to be financially independent for the rest of his life. Kierkegaard rarely left Copenhagen, but he enjoyed going to the theater, taking carriage rides out into the country, and chatting with people he met, including servants and laborers, whom wealthy people would ordinarily ignore.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 4, 2025

Posted on May 4, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1675, England’s King Charles II commissioned the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the center of time and space on Earth. He also created the position of the Astronomer Royal at the same time, to “apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation.”

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