- J A N U A R Y
- New Year's Day
- 1st = Birth of the Internet, when ARPANET switched to the TCP/IP protocol. [1983]
- 2nd = Birthday of author Isaac Asimov [1920-92]
- 6th = Birthday of author / lecturer Alan W. Watts [1915-73]
- 8th = Birthday of quantum physicist Stephen W. Hawking [1942]
- 15th = Birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68] in Atlanta, GA
- 17th = Birthday of Benjamin Franklin [1706-90]
- Third Monday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday [U.S.A.]
- 19th = Birthday of Gen. Robert E. Lee [1807-70] in rural Virginia
- 19th = Birthday of author Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49] in Boston, MA
- National 'No Name-Calling' Week
- 22nd = Birthday of cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith [1875-1948]
- 27th = Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [1756-91]
- 28th = "Welcome Home VietNam Veterans Day" established in 2004 on the 31st anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accord.
- 29th = Birthday of eco-activist / author Edward Abbey [1927-89]
- 31st = Birthday of Western author Zane Grey [1872-1939]
- F E B R U A R Y
- Black History Month [U.S.A.]
- 1st = Birthday of film director John Ford [1894-1973]
- 2nd = Birthday of Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand [1905-82]
- 3rd = Birthday of author-feminist Gertrude Stein [1874-1946]
- 3rd = Birthday of author James A. Michener [1907-97]
- 4th = Birthday of civil rights activist Rosa Parks [1913-2005]
- 5th = Birthday of Beat writer Wm. S. Burroughs [1914-97]
- 8th = The Confederate States of America declared itself into existence. [1861]
- 9th = Chinese Lunar New Year {2005 = 'Rooster'} / Vietnamese Tet Holiday
- 10th = Birthday of New Mexico lawman Elfego Baca [1865-1945]
- 12th = Birthday of Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]; date declared a national holiday 12 February 1892
- 12th = Birthday of scientist Charles Darwin [1809-82]
- 14th = Valentine's Day
- 15th = Battleship U.S.S. Maine mysteriously blew up in the harbor at Havana, Cuba [1898]
- Bob Marley Day Festivals [Feb 2004 = #23]
- 19th = President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the roundup of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage for relocation to remote and uniformly bleak internment camps [1942]
- Third Monday: Presidents Day holiday [U.S.A.]
- 21st = Birthday of film director Sam Peckinpah [1925-84]
- 26th = N.Y. World Trade Center bombing: six dead & 1,000 injured [1993]
- 27th = Birthday of author John Steinbeck [1902-68] in Salinas, CA
- M A R C H
- 1st = Birthday of author Ralph Ellison [1913-94]
- 1st = Birthday of author / activist Charles Fletcher Lummis [1859-1928]
- 2nd = Birthday of children's author Dr. Seuss [1904-91] in Springfield, MA
- First Tuesday: California Primary Election
- 6th = Birthday of Alan Greenspan, longtime chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve [1926]
- 9th = Birthday of tough-guy author Mickey Spillane [1918-2006]
- 12th = Birthday of Beat writer Jack Kerouac [1922-69] in Lowell, MA
- 14th = Birthday of physicist Albert Einstein [1879-1955] in Ulm, Germany
- 17th = St. Patrick's Day
- 19th
- Birthday of lawman Wyatt Earp [1848-1929]
- Birthday of Western artist Charles M. Russell [1864-1926]
- Birthday of jazz musician Ornette Coleman [1930]
- 22nd = Birthday of Western author Louis L'Amour [1908-88]
- 23rd = Birthday of cinematic master Akira Kurosawa [1910-98] in Japan
- 26th = Birthday of jazz musician James Moody [1925]
- 31st = California's new Cesar Chavez State Holiday
- A P R I L
- National Poetry Month [USA]
- 8th = Birthday of author John Fante [1909-83]
- 14th = Birthday of revolutionary Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
- 16th = Birthday of silent film star Charles Chaplin [1889-1977]
- 19th = Oklahoma City bombing: 168 dead [1995]
- 22nd = Earth Day [est. 1970]
- 23rd = UNESCO's World Book Day
- 23rd = Birthday of English poet & playwright Wlliam Shakespeare [1564-1616]
- Last Friday: Arbor Day [U.S.A,; est. 1872]
- 30th = Birthday of performer Willie Nelson [1933]
- M A Y
- 4th = Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University opened fire on antiwar protesters, killing four students and wounding nine others [1970]
- 5th = [U.S.] National Cartoonists Day
- 6th = National Day of Reason
- 6th = Birthday of actor / filmmaker Orson Welles [1915-85]
- 10th = Completion of the U.S. transcontinental railroad: driving of the 'Golden Spike' at Promontory, Utah [1869]
- 15th = Birthday of author L. Frank Baum [1856-1919], creator of "The Wizard of Oz"
- 18th = Birthday of producer-director Frank Capra [1897-1991]
- 19th = Birthday of activist Malcolm X [1925-65]
- Last Monday: Memorial Day [U.S.A.]
- Third Weekend: National Polka Festival in Ennis, TX
- 24th = Birthday of musician Bob Dylan {nee Robert Zimmerman} [1941]
- 25th = Birthday of transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
- 27th = Birthday of mystery author Dashiell Hammett [1894-1961]
- 27th = Birthday of mystery author Tony Hillerman [1925]
- 31st = Birthday of poet Walt Whitman [1819-92]
- J U N E
- Audio Book Month: "Embrace The Spoken Word"
- 3rd = Birthday of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg [1926-97]
- 3rd = Birthday of author Larry McMurtry [1936]
- 4th = Chinese army troops stormed Beijing's Tiananmen Square to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations, killing unknown thousands. [1989]
- 5th = Journalist John Keenan photographed an unarmed Chinese civilian facing down army tanks in Tiananmen Square. [1969] [ photo ]
- 6th = 'Operation Overlord', the WWII invasion of Normandy's beaches, began; the day is referred to as 'D-Day' [1944]
- 8th = Birthday of architect Frank Lloyd Wright [1867-1959]
- Third Weekend: Winlock, WA Egg Days Festival [2004 = #68]
- 17th = Five burglars were arrested inside the Watergate Building in Washington DC, leading to the resignation of President Nixon 26 months later. [1972]
- J U L Y
- 4th = Independence Day [U.S.A.]
- 6th = Birthday of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo [1907-54]
- 7th = Birthday of scifi author Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]
- 9th = Birthday of genius inventor Nikola Tesla [1856-1943]
- 12th = Birthday of inventor / thinker R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]
- 12th = Birthday of transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]
- Third Saturday: National Woodie Wagon Day
- 17th = Birthday of author Erle Stanley Gardner [1889-1970], creator of lawyer Perry Mason
- 18th = Birthday of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]
- 21st = Birthday of author Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961] in Oak Park, IL
- 22nd = Birthday of painter Edward Hopper [1882-1967]
- 23rd = Birthday of mystery author Raymond Chandler [1888-1959]
- 24th = Birthday of mystery author John D. MacDonald [1916-86]
- 30th = Birthday of sociologist / economist Thorstein B. Veblen [1857-1929]
- A U G U S T
- 1st = Birthday of author Herman Melville in New York City [1819-91]
- 2nd = Birthday of author James Baldwin [1924-87]
- 3rd = Birthday of journalist Ernie Pyle in Dana, Indiana [1900-45]
- 9th = Henry David Thoreau published "Walden". [1854]
- 16th = Birthday of poet & author Charles Bukowski [1920-94]
- 19th = Birthday of inventor of television Philo T. Farnsworth [1906-71] in Utah
- 22nd = Birthday of author / wit Dorothy Parker [1893-1967] in New Jersey
- 22nd = Birthday of sci-fi author / poet Ray Bradbury [1920] in Waukegan, IL
- 22nd = [U.S.] National Punctuation Day [est. 2004]
- 24th = Birthday of author Earl Derr Biggers [1884-1933], creator of police detective Charlie Chan
- 28th = Birthday of sociologist C. Wright Mills [1916-62]
- 28th = Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC to 200,000 people. [1963]
- 29th = Birthday of filmmaker Preston Sturges [1898-1959]
- 29th = Birthday of jazzman Charlie 'Bird' Parker [1920-55]
- Aug-Sept: The Burning Man Project in the Nevada desert [est. 1986]
- S E P T E M B E R
- First Monday: Labor Day [U.S.A.]
- 1st = Birthday of author Edgar Rice Burroughs [1875-1950], creator of Tarzan
- 2nd = 'Atlas Shrugged' Celebration Day in Ouray, Colorado
- 5th = Birthday of philosopher Werner Erhard [1935] in Bala Cynwyd, PA
- 8th = International Literacy Day
- First Sunday after Labor Day: National Grandparents Day [USA; est. 1978]
- 11th = Birthday of author William Sydney Porter [1862-1910], aka O. Henry in Greensboro, NC
- 11th = New York World Trade Center attacked: 3,056 dead [9-11-01]; see headlines from Sept. 12th
- 12th = Birthday of author / curmudgeon H.L. Mencken [1880-1956]
- 15th = Birthday of humorist Robert Benchley [1889-1945]
- 15th = Birthday of mystery author Agatha Christie [1890-1976] in Torquay, Devon, England
- 17th
- U.S. Constitution Day & Citizenship Day: U.S. Constitution completed and signed by delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia PA [1787]
- Birthday of singer / songwriter Hank Williams [1923-53]
- Birthday of mystery author Robert B. Parker [1932]
- 20th = Birthday of muckraker Upton Sinclair [1878-1968]
- 21st = Birthday of visionary auto-maker Preston Tucker [1903-56]
- 23rd = Philo T. Farnsworth [1906-71] invented all-electronic television [1927]
- 23rd = Birthday of Bruce Springsteen [1949]
- 24th = Birthday of author F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940]
- 25th = Birthday of Pulitzer- & Nobel-winning author William Faulkner [1897-1962]
- 26th = Birthday of composer George Gershwin [1898-1937]
- 28th = Birthday of Confucius [551 A.D.]
- Last Saturday: National Public Lands Day [est. 1994]
- O C T O B E R
- 2nd = Birthday of peace activist Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
- 3rd = Birthday of author Thomas Wolfe [1900-38]
- 3rd = Birthday of author Gore Vidal [1925]
- 4th = Birthday of Western painter Frederick Remington [1861-1909]
- 4th = Birthday of film comic Buster Keaton [1895-1966] in Piqua, KS
- 7th = Official launch of the 1950s Beat Movement: The seminal "Six Gallery" reading in San Francisco, California which featured Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Philip Lamantia, Kenneth Rexroth, and Philip Whalen, and was attended by Jack Kerouac; Allen Ginsberg recited his epic poem "Howl" for the first time publicly. [1955]
- 14th = Birthday of economist W. Edwards Deming [1900-93] in Sioux City, Iowa
- 16th = Birthday of playwright Eugene O'Neill [1888-1953]
- 17th = Birthday of author / playwright Arthur Miller [1915-2005]
- 22nd = Birthday of counterculture icon Timothy Leary, PhD [1920-96]
- 24th = 'Take Back Your Time' Day [2005 = #1]
- Hallowe'en
- N O V E M B E R
- 1st = National Family Literacy Day
- First Tuesday: U.S. National Election: Working Minds U.S. Politics & Elections Page
- 7th = Birthday of existentialist philosopher Albert Camus [1913-60] in Algeria
- Veterans Day [U.S.A.]
- 11th = Birthday of author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
- 13th = Birthday of author Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-94]
- 14th = Birthday of anti-communist demagogue Sen. Joseph McCarthy [1908-57]
- 15th = America Recycles Day [est. 1999]
- 19th = Execution by firing squad of labor leader Joe Hill [1879-1915] in Utah
- 20th = Birthday of outlaw William Bonney aka 'Billy the Kid' [1859-81]
- 20th = Universal Children's Day [est. 1954] of the United Nations
- Fourth Thursday: Thanksgiving [U.S.A.]
- 24th = The House Unamerican Activities Committee cited for contempt of Congress a group of writers, producers & directors – later known as the 'Hollywood Ten' – for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry. [1947]
- 30th = Birthday of author / humorist Mark Twain [1835-1910]
- D E C E M B E R
- 1st = Birthday of mystery author Rex Stout [1886-1975], creator of detective Nero Wolfe
- 7th = Pearl Harbor, Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft at dawn: 2340 military personnel & 48 civilians killed; declared the next day by President Roosevelt 'a Day of Infamy'. [1941]
- 10th = Intl. Human Rights Day [est. 1948]
- 13th = Birthday of mystery author Ross Macdonald [1915-83]
- 17th = The Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur) flew the first successful powered & manned heavier-than-air aeroplane flights at Kitty Hawk, NC [1903] { link }
- 24th = Birthday of billionaire aviator Howard Hughes [1905-76] in Houston, TX
- Christmas Day
- 26th to January 1 = Kwanzaa Holiday
- 27th = National Fruitcake Day
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