Born in 1928 – Agnès Varda, Belgian-French director, producer, and screenwriter.

“This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera, and a cat.”

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Born in 1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English journalist, author, and playwright.

“A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education.”

“Though the academic authorities are actually proud of conducting everything by means of Examinations, they seldom indulge in what religious people used to descibe as Self-Examination. The consequence is that the modern State has educated its citizens in a series of ephemeral fads.”

Born in 1938 – Raymond Carver, American short story writer and poet.

“It’s possible, in a poem or a short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things– a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman’s earring– with immense, even startling power. It is possible to write a line of seemingly innocuous dialogue and have it send a chill along the reader’s spine– the source of artistic delight, as Nabokov would have it. That’s the kind of writing that most interests me.”

Born in 1949 – Roger Deakins , English cinematographer.

Above: A Deakins shot from Ethan & Joel Coen’s 1996 film, Fargo.

Born in 1947 – Jane Kenyon, American poet and translator.

“Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.”

Born in  1844 – Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator.

Above: The Boating Party,1893.

Also born on this day:  Ted Kaczynski and Morrissey.

Born in 1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician.

Above: Wing of a Blue Roller, 1512

Born in 1910 – Aleksandr Ivanovich Laktionov, Russian painter and educator.

Above: Laktionov’s 1952 painting, Into a New Flat.

Born in 1891 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian novelist and playwright.

“Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar’s vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!”

Above: Image by Iker Spozio, inspired by Bulgakov’s novel, The Master and Margarita.

In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition departed from Camp Dubois and began its historic journey, traveling up the Missouri River.