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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 6, 2023

Posted on July 6, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Louis Pasteur successfully tested his rabies vaccine on this day in 1885. Pasteur had begun work on a vaccine in 1882, using a weakened form of the virus taken from the spinal cords of infected animals. The research was time-consuming, because it took several weeks for the virus to reach his test animals’ brains after they were infected, but Pasteur soon realized that people didn’t need to have the vaccine on board before they were bitten, as with other diseases. The delay between the rabid animal’s bite and the outbreak of the disease meant the vaccine could be given only when needed, and it would have plenty of time to work.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Posted on July 5, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of American technology executive Susan Wojcicki, born in Santa Clara County, California (1968). You might not know her name, but if you like to watch cat videos on YouTube, she’s the person to thank: she convinced her employer, Google, to buy the home video startup. Wojcicki has been called “the most important person in advertising” and “the most powerful woman on the internet.” She was the CEO of YouTube.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Posted on July 4, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The French presented the United States with the Statue of Liberty on this date in 1884. The statue owes its origins to a comment made by the president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, a man named Édouard René de Laboulaye, in 1865. The American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet, “The New Colossus,” to raise funds for construction of the statue’s pedestal; the sonnet was inscribed on a plaque and displayed inside the pedestal in 1903.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 3, 2023

Posted on July 3, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of George M. Cohan, born in Providence, Rhode Island (1878). He wrote hundreds of songs and more than 40 shows and musicals. Critics didn’t like them, but theatergoers loved them. In 1904, his breakout show, Little Johnny Jones, took local houses by storm, especially the new numbers “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 2, 2023

Posted on July 2, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1937, that Amelia Earhart was last heard from, somewhere over the Pacific. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, had set off in May from Miami to fly around the world in a Lockheed Electra. She said, “I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 1, 2023

Posted on July 1, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Jean Stafford, born in Covina, California (1915). When she was six years old, her father lost most of the family’s money on the stock market. They moved to Boulder, Colorado, where they lived in poverty. Despite their money troubles, her father spent all his time writing, though he only sold one book. They survived by taking in sorority girls as boarders.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 30, 2023

Posted on June 30, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded in Washington, D.C., by a group of 28 women. They’d gathered for the Third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women to air their frustrations about the Equal Opportunity Commission’s failure to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited sex discrimination in employment. Women had lobbied Congress hard in 1964 to include this amendment in the Civil Rights Act, and their anger at its lack of enforcement was boiling over.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 29, 2023

Posted on June 29, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of composer, librettist, and lyricist Frank Loesser, born in New York City in 1910. His father was a classical pianist and a piano teacher who tried to discourage his son from pursuing popular music, but to no avail. Because his father didn’t approve, Loesser was largely self-taught.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Posted on June 28, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of actress and comedian Gilda Radner, born in Detroit (1946). Her father deserves the credit for introducing the young Gilda to show biz: he used to take her to Broadway musicals and nightclub shows, and she would love to perform in the living room at home.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday June 27, 2023

Posted on June 27, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Helen Keller (1880), born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was 19 months old, she came down with an illness — possibly scarlet fever — that left her blind and deaf. Alexander Graham Bell examined her when she was six years old and sent Anne Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, to help her. Sullivan stayed with Keller until she (Sullivan) died in 1936.

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