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

Whittaker Chambers publishes Witness

The first hydrogen bomb is tested by U.S. technicians

Elizabeth II ascends the throne of Great Britain

The Mau-Mau revolt against British colonial rule in Kenya

Dr. Jonas Salk introduces a vaccine to treat polio

C. S. Lewis publishes Mere Christianity

Joseph Kramm receives the Pulitzer Prize in drama for The Shrike

François Mauriac receives the Nobel Prize for Literature

Evelyn Waugh publishes his Sword of Honour trilogy

Margery Allingham publishes The Tiger in the Smoke

Yasunari Kawabata publishes Sembazuru (Thousand Cranes)

Ralph Ellison publishes Invisible Man

Ernest Hemingway publishes The Old Man and the Sea

Amos Tutuola publishes The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead’s Town

Juan José Arreola publishes Confabulario

Rohinton Mistry is born

John Steinbeck publishes East of Eden

Marianne Moore receives the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Collected Poems

Jean Anouilh’s Le bal des voleurs is produced

Jimmy Santiago Baca is born

Ralph J. Bunche publishes Peace and the United Nations

Ernest Buckler publishes The Mountain and the Valley

Erle Stanley Gardner publishes The Court of Last Resort

E. B. White publishes Charlotte’s Web

Herman Wouk receives the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II

Walter Mosley is born

Explore: A Little Yellow Dog, The Man in My Basement, Walter Mosley

Joseph Kramm’s drama The Shrike is first performed

Explore: The Shrike, Joseph Kramm

Knut Hamsun dies

Explore: Hunger, Knut Hamsun Hunger

Amy Tan is born

Explore: The Joy Luck Club, Two Kinds, Amy Tan

Mariano Azuela dies

Explore: The Underdogs, Mariano Azuela

Douglas Adams is born

Explore: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Alice Hoffman is born

Explore: The River King, The Ice Queen

Ferenc Molnar dies

Gary Soto is born

Explore: Buried Onions, Living up the Street, Oranges, Gary Soto, The theme and rite of passage in Gary Soto's poem "Oranges."

Elizabeth Becker (Beth Henley) is born

Explore: Crimes of the Heart, The Miss Firecracker Contest, Beth Henley

Vikram Seth is born

Explore: Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, The Golden Gate

Robert R. McCammon is born

Explore: Boy's Life

Rita Dove is born

Explore: Geometry, Mother Love, Rita Dove, What is the theme of Rita Dove's poem "Daystar"?

Loren D. Estleman is born

Cherrie Moraga is born

Explore: Cherríe Moraga

Clive Barker is born

Michael Cunningham is born

Explore: Michael Cunningham, White Angel, By Nightfall