Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter) died on this day in 1864
	Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray) was released from Reading Gaol on this day in 1897, after serving two years' hard labour for gross indecency
	Pulitzer-winning novelist Booth Tarkington (The Magnificent Ambersons) died on this day in 1946
	Jodi Picoult (The Pact, Salem Falls) was born on this day in 1966
	Poet humourist Ogden Nash (Hard Lines) died on this day in 1971
	On this day in 2006, Protesters in Italy and the Philippines burned copies of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code to protest the release of the motion picture.
	On this day in 2010, the "Lost Man Booker Prize" for 1970 was finally awarded to J. G. Farrell's Troubles. A rules change in 1971 left a hole in the Man Booker Prize timeline that was finally filled by this retroactive award.
	Unlikely but true: On this day in $, outspoken atheist evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution) announced his support for the British Education Secretary's plan to send free King James Bibles to every state school in Britain.