1882 - Publisher Frank Doubleday is born in Brooklyn, New York. He started working for Charles Scribner's & Sons at the age of 15, and became editor of their magazine. Then, in 1897, he joined with Samuel S. McClure to found his own house. He published Joseph Conrad, Selma Lagerlöf, Sinclair Lewis, and many other great writers. He's also known for the terrible thing he did to Theodore Dreiser: after publishing Dreiser's novel Sister Carrie in 1900, he withdrew it almost immediately because he did not approve of it.


1896 - French poet Paul Verlaine, friend and lover of Arthur Rimbaud, dies.

1913 - In London, Harold Munro opens the doors of the Poetry Bookshop, through which will pass such notables as Robert Frost and Ezra Pound, who will meet here for the first time.

1926 - TV comedian Soupy Sales is born in North Carolina.

1935 - Elvis Presley is born in Tupelo, Mississippi, one of a pair of twins. His brother Jessie is stillborn. Billboard ranks him as the top pop recording artist of all time with 17 No. 1 songs.

1941 - Monty Python troupe member Graham Chapman is born. He died in 1988.

1946 - Doors guitarist Robby Krieger is born in Los Angeles.

1964 - President Lyndon Johnson declares a "War on Poverty."

1966 - The final episode of Shindig! featuring the Kinks and the Who is broadcast on ABC-TV. The show had premiered in September 1964 and starting in1965 had aired twice weekly, on Thursday and Saturday evenings.

1972 - In Palo Alto, California, Kenneth Patchen—poet, novelist, painter, and graphic designer dies.

For more day-by-day history go to HistoryUnlimited.net