The Calendar of Literary Facts contains more than 6,500 events in literary history.

The U.S. Congress passes the Smith Act, a peacetime sedition act which provides criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the American government

Arthur Koestler publishes Darkness at Noon

Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister, succeeding Neville Chamberlain

Mark Van Doren receives the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Collected Poems, 1922-1928

Nelson Algren publishes The Man with the Golden Arm

Christina Stead publishes The Man Who Loved Children

Thomas Wolfe’s novel You Can’t Go Home Again is published

Leonard Bacon publishes Sunderland Capture

Upton Sinclair introduces his fictional character Lanny Budd, the hero of a series of eleven novels, in World’s End

Cyril Connolly founds the distinguished literary periodical Horizon

Raymond Chandler publishes Farewell, My Lovely

Richard Wright publishes Native Son

William Saroyan receives the Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Time of Your Life (declined)

Graham Greene publishes The Labyrinthine Ways

Kenneth Rexroth publishes In What Hour

Ernest Hemingway publishes For Whom the Bell Tolls

John Steinbeck receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Grapes of Wrath

Thomas Harris is born

E. J. Pratt publishes Brebeuf and His Brethren

John O’Hara publishes Pal Joey

Bernard Pomerance is born

Adolfo Bioy Casares publishes La invencion de Morel (The Invention of Morel)

E. E. Cummings publishes 50 Poems

Robert E. Sherwood’s Roosevelt and Hopkins is produced

Gao Xingjian is born

Explore: The Other Shore, Gao Xingjian

Edmund White is born

Explore: Edmund White, A Boy's Own Story

J. M. Coetzee is born

Explore: Disgrace, Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee

John Buchan dies

Explore: The Thirty-nine Steps

Frank Chin is born

Explore: The Year of the Dragon, The Chickencoop Chinaman, Frank Chin, Donald Duk

David Plante is born

Explore: David Plante, American Ghosts

Mikhail Bulgakov dies

Explore: Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog

David Rabe is born

Explore: Sticks and Bones, Hurlyburly, David Rabe

Selma Lagerlöf dies

Explore: The Legend of the Christmas Rose, Selma Lagerlöf

Mark Medoff is born

Explore: Children of a Lesser God, Mark Medoff

Russell Banks is born

Explore: The Sweet Hereafter, Continental Drift, Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone, What are the themes of "Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story" by Russell Banks?

Maria Campbell is born

Jeffrey Archer is born

Explore: Old Love Summary

Robert E. Sherwood’s drama There Shall Be No Night is first performed

Explore: Robert E. Sherwood

Robin Cook is born

Explore: Coma, Mutation, Robin Cook, Contagion by Robin Cook: Chapter Summaries

John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath

Explore: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Angela Carter is born

Explore: The Bloody Chamber, The Erlking, Angela Carter

Peter Benchley is born

Explore: Jaws, White Shark, Peter Benchley

Victor E. Villasenor is born

Explore: Macho!, Rain of Gold

Verner von Heidenstam dies

The Auschwitz concentration camp is established in Poland

Joseph Brodsky is born

Explore: Joseph Brodsky

Maeve Binchy is born

Explore: Circle of Friends, Evening Class, The Glass Lake, Maeve Binchy

Marcus Garvey dies

Explore: Marcus Garvey, What is the theme of Marcus Garvey's Africa for the Africans?

James Welch is born

Explore: Winter in the Blood, James Welch, Fools Crow

Luis Valdez is born

Explore: Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez

Jon Anderson is born

Explore: Jon Anderson

Robert J. Conley is born

Susan Howatch is born

P. G. Wodehouse, living at villa in Le Touquet, France, is arrested and interned by German occupation forces, as are all English nationals under the age of 60

Explore: P. G. Wodehouse

Bharati Mukherjee is born

Explore: Bharati Mukherjee, The Holder of the World, Tiger's Daughter

Sue Grafton is born

Explore: O Is for Outlaw, Sue Grafton

Bruce Chatwin is born

Explore: Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines, In Patagonia

Robert Pinsky is born

Explore: Robert Pinsky

Maxine Hong Kingston is born

Explore: The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston

F. Scott Fitzgerald dies

Explore: The Great Gatsby, Babylon Revisited, Winter Dreams, This Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Examples of metaphors and similes in The Great Gatsby