Born in 1954 – Ang Lee, Taiwanese-American director, producer, and screenwriter.

Above: Kevin Kline and Christina Ricci in Lee’s film, The Ice Storm.

Born in 1882 – N. C. Wyeth, American painter and illustrator.

Above: Wyeth illustration for Treasure Island.

Born in 1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader.

Born in 1890 – Paul Strand, American photographer and director.

Above: Strand’s 1953 photograph, The Family, Luzzara, Italy.

Published in 1952: Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White, with illustrations by Garth Williams.

Previously: Friedrich Nietzsche

In 1908,  the Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers, 2–0, clinching the World Series. It would be their last one to date.

Born in 1945 – Dési Bouterse, Surinamese general, politikima, and current President of Suriname.

The leader of a military coup of the Suriname government in the early 1980s, he is accused of killing fifteen of his leading opponents in what is known as the “December murders.” Bouterse was prosecuted for these murders and a trial was initiated, but in 2012 the National Assembly extended him amnesty. He is also suspected of having directed a massacre in 1986, in which 35 inhabitants of the Maroon village of Moiwana were killed.

In 2000, Bouterse was sentenced in absentia in the Netherlands to 11 years imprisonment after being convicted of trafficking 474 kilos of cocaine. As Suriname’s president, he enjoys national immunity from arrest in his country.

Born in 1969 – Polly Jean Harvey, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer.

“I firmly disbelieve that one has to be a tortured soul to write good music.”

Born in 1703 – Jonathan Edwards, American pastor and theologian.

Edwards evaluates man: “A little, wretched, despicable creature; a worm, a mere nothing, and less than nothing; a vile insect that has risen up in contempt against the majesty of Heaven and earth.”