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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 18, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 18, 2020

It’s the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which stated that U.S. citizens’ right to vote could not be “denied or abridged…on account of sex.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 17, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 17, 2020

It’s the birthday of American folk hero Davy Crockett (1786), who served in the Tennessee state legislature and died in the Battle of the Alamo.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 16, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 16, 2020

It’s the birthday of English philosopher and playwright Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679), who taught herself to read and write when she was a child.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 15, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 15, 2020

It’s the birthday of essayist Thomas de Quincey (Manchester, England, 1785), who arguably invented the “drug memoir” genre.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 14, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 14, 2020

It’s the birthday of cartoonist Gary Larson (1950), who created the popular single-panel comic “The Far Side.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 13, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 13, 2020

The Lebanese-born Dr. Michael Shadid established the first cooperatively owned and operated hospital in the United States on this date in 1931.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 12, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 12, 2020

It’s the birthday of Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote: “O beautiful for spacious skies, / For amber waves of grain, / For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain!”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 11, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 11, 2020

It’s the birthday of Alex Haley (1921-1992), who wrote both “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (1965) and “Roots” (1976).

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 10, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 10, 2020

It’s the birthday of Joyce Sutphen, Poet Laureate of Minnesota, whose poem “Happiness” we are featuring today.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 9, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 9, 2020

It’s the birthday of author P.L. Travers (1899-1996), who described her popular Mary Poppins series as “both a joy and a curse.”

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