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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 24, 2025

Posted on November 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, born on this day in Shillong, Meghalaya, in 1961. Her dad was a tea planter and her mom was a women’s rights activist. She left home at 16 and lived in a squatter’s camp in New Delhi, and then she went to school to be an architect, but she didn’t like it. She worked as a government researcher, an actress, and an aerobics instructor.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 23, 2025

Posted on November 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1889 that the Jukebox made its debut at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. It was called a “nickel-in-the-slot player” and was built by the Pacific Phonograph Co. Later that year, jukeboxes were installed in other places around the city and on ferries that traveled back and forth across the bay between San Francisco and Oakland.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, November 22, 2025

Posted on November 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the woman who served as the model for Picasso’s Weeping Woman portraits, Dora Maar, born in Tours, France (1907). She was born Théodora Markovitch, and an artist in her own right, known for her surreal photographs of the reproductive parts of flowers.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, November 21, 2025

Posted on November 21, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of British diplomat, journalist, and diary-keeper Harold George Nicolson, born in Teheran, Iran (1886). His father was a British ambassador, so Harold had a privileged and cosmopolitan childhood. He went to college at Oxford and graduated near the bottom of his class. But he passed the exam, and got a job in the Foreign Office.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 20, 2025

Posted on November 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of astronomer Edwin Hubble, born in Marshfield, Missouri (1889). He majored in math and astronomy in college, then went to law school and started practicing as an attorney. He got bored after just a couple of years and went to get a Ph.D. in astronomy, where he focused his research on nebulae — distant objects in the sky that couldn’t be categorized as stars.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Posted on November 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1863 that Abraham Lincoln got up in front of about 15,000 people and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which begins, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Posted on November 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Mickey Mouse, as officially celebrated by Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse was actually “born” about six months before his official birthday, debuting in a cartoon where he played pilot Charles Lindbergh, but the cartoon failed to pick up a distributor.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 17, 2025

Posted on November 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who created Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, born in Toronto, Canada (1944). He majored in English at the University of Toronto, and then moved to Britain in the 1960s to pursue a career selling cars. His friends loved his sense of humor, they knew that he liked to be in charge, and they encouraged him to quit his job as a car salesman and consider another career.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 16, 2025

Posted on November 16, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the “First Lady of Radio,” mostly forgotten today, Mary Margaret McBride, born in Paris, Missouri (1899). She was one of the first radio interviewers to bring the techniques of newspaper journalism to the airwaves, and in the first 20 years of her syndicated program, she interviewed more than 30,000 guests from the world of politics, literature, arts, and entertainment.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, November 15, 2025

Posted on November 15, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer and radio commentator Daniel Pinkwater, born in Memphis, Tennessee (1941). He grew up in Los Angeles. One day he went into an art supply store there and was so fascinated that he decided to become an artist.

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