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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 5, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 5, 2020

It’s the birthday of one of the original muckrakers, Ida Tarbell (1857-1944), whose investigatory reporting brought down Standard Oil.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The Erie Canal was completed on this date in 1825. It was an engineering marvel that was once called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 3, 2020

“Without general elections, without unrestrained freedom of the press and assembly…life dies out in every public institution.” –Marxist activist Rosa Luxemburg

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 2, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 2, 2020

It’s the birthday of the frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820), who said, “I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 1, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 1, 2020

On this day in 1993, the European Union was formally established, with 28 countries choosing to join it and open their borders to trade and travel.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, October 31, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, October 31, 2020

It’s the baptism day of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who only became well known outside of the Netherlands 200 years after his death.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, October 30, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, October 30, 2020

It’s the 85th birthday of biographer Robert Caro, who once said, “The power of the historian is the power of the truth, a very basic thing.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 29, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 29, 2020

It’s Harriet Powers Day in Athens, Georgia, named after one of the finest Southern quiltmakers of the 19th century.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, October 28, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, October 28, 2020

It’s the birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, born in New York City (1914), who developed a polio vaccine at the height of a polio epidemic in the mid-1950s.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, October 27, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, October 27, 2020

It’s the 45th birthday of novelist Zadie Smith, who once said, “Self-expression? Go and ring a bell in the yard if you want to express yourself.”

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