It's Towel Day today. First celebrated two weeks after author Douglas Adams' death in 2001, this day commemorates Adams and his work, its name being a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. Fans carry a towel with them all day, as it is "about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have."
	Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature, The Transcendentalist) was born on this day in 1803
	Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray) was convicted of gross indecency on this day in 1895
	Phyllis Gotlieb (O Master Caliban!, Sunburst) was born on this day in 1926
	Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity) was born on this day in 1927
	W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe, Box Socials) was born on this day in 1935
	Poppy Z. Brite (Lost Souls, Drawing Blood. Are You Loathsome Tonight?) was born on this day in 1967