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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 9, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 9, 2020

It’s the birthday of Oliver Sacks (1933-2015), who explored phenomena of the brain in books like “Musicophilia” and “Seeing Voices.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 8, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 8, 2020

It’s the birthday of psychiatrist and writer Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (Switzerland, 1926-2004), who famously outlined the five stages of grief.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 7, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 7, 2020

It’s the birthday of American biologist Nettie Stevens (1861-1912), who made the pioneering discovery of sex chromosomes.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 6, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 6, 2020

It’s the birthday of painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), who said, “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Battle of Osan took place on this date 70 years ago. It was the first face-off of American and North Korean troops in the Korean War.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 4, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 4, 2020

On this day in 1855, Walt Whitman published the first edition of “Leaves of Grass.” It was met with glowing reviews, many penned by Whitman himself.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 3, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 3, 2020

It’s the birthday of writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who said, “a book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 2, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 2, 2020

It’s the birthday of civil rights activist, lawyer, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908), who sat on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 1, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 1, 2020

It’s the birthday of French novelist George Sand, born Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804), who originally wanted to be a nun, but her grandmother wouldn’t let her.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 30, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 30, 2020

On this day in 1860, a heated debate on the merits of the theory of evolution took place at Oxford University. “The Origin of Species” had been published 7 months earlier.

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