Today is Eugene Ormandy's birthday; he was born in 1899! I was extremely privileged to attend his farewell concert in Philadelphia long ago.
Today is also the birthday of D.E. Stevenson; she was born in 1892 and wrote some interesting rather gentle novels. Note I've not read the below novel by her but admired the old cover...
Today is also the first time Mark Twain's fiction was published; that was in 1865.