Calendar of Literary Facts

October 7...

1849: James Whitcomb Riley is born

1907: Helen MacInnes is born

1931: Desmond Tutu is born

1934: Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) is born

1935: Thomas Keneally is born

1939: Clive James is born

1993: Novelist Toni Morrison becomes the first black American to win the Nobel Prize for literature

2001: An American-led military coalition commences an air-war against Taliban and Al-Quaeda forces in Afghanistan, the first stage in Operation Enduring Freedom