January

Thomas Paine

January 1 Sir James George Frazer (1854)
January 1 Huldrych Zwingli (1484)
January 2 Isaac Asimov (1920)
January 3 Franz Valery-Marie Cumont (1868)
January 3 Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE)
January 4 The Fabian Society Founded (1884)
January 5 Umberto Eco (1932)
January 5 Anabaptist Felix Manz Executed by “Baptism” (1527)
January 6 Joan of Arc (1412)
January 7 Heidi Fleiss Sent to Prison (1997): Religion v. Prostitution
January 8 Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen (1911)
January 8 Thomas Aikenhead Hanged for Blasphemy (1697)
January 8 Stephen Hawking (1942)
January 9 Gypsy Rose Lee (1914)
January 9 Dave Matthews (1967)
January 9 Simone de Beauvoir (1908)
January 10 Thomas Paine Publishes “Common Sense” (1776)
January 11 William James (1842)
January 12 Howard Stern (1954)
January 12 James Mark Baldwin (1861)
January 13 Ernestine Rose (1810)
January 14 A Day of Fasting and Penance (1997): Apologizing 300 Years Late for Witch Executions
January 14 Andy Rooney (1919)
January 15 Molière (1622)
January 15 Jean Meslier (1678)
January 16 The “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom” Becomes Law (1786)
January 17 Benjamin Franklin (1706)
January 18 Jacob Bronowski (1906)
January 18 Baron de Montesquieu (1689)
January 19 Edgar Allan Poe (1809)
January 19 Auguste Comte (1798)
January 19 James Watt (1736)
January 20 “Piltdown Man” Hoax Fossils Exposed (1953)
January 20 Bill Maher (1956)
January 21 Helen Hamilton Gardener (1853)
January 22 August Strindberg (1849)
January 22 Lord Byron (1788)
January 22 Francis Bacon (1561)
January 23 Stendhal (1783)
January 23 Boniface VIII Becomes Pope (1295)
January 24 Frederick the Great (1712)
January 24 Emperor Hadrian (76 CE)
January 25 Virginia Woolf (1882)
January 25 W. Somerset Maugham (1874)
January 25 Robert Burns (1759)
January 26 The Index of Prohibited Books (1564)
January 27 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756)
January 27 Sale of Indulgences Affirmed (1343)
January 28 Sarah MacLachlan (1968)
January 28 Artur Rubinstein (1887)
January 29 Thomas Paine (1737)
January 30 Walter Savage Landor (1775)
January 31 Irving Langmuir (1881)
January 31 Franz Schubert (1797)

February

Edison at his phonograph

February 1 Langston Hughes (1902)
February 2 Ayn Rand (1905)
February 2 James Joyce (1882)
February 2 Havelock Ellis (1859)
February 3 The Four Chaplains and God’s Love (1943)
February 4 Georg Brandes (1842)
February 5 The Great Aquarian Conjunction (1962): The Pseudoscience of Astrology
February 5 Arthur Keith (1866)
February 5 Hiram Maxim (1840)
February 6 Christopher Marlowe (1564)
February 7 Charles Dickens (1812)
February 7 Sinclair Lewis (1885)
February 8 John Ruskin (1819)
February 8 Henry Walter Bates (1825)
February 9 First Public Strip-tease (1893): Religion v. Nudity
February 10 Bertolt Brecht (1898)
February 10 Charles Lamb (1775)
February 11 Thomas Edison (1847)
February 12 Charles Darwin (1809)
February 12 Abraham Lincoln (1809)
February 13 First U.S. Public School Founded (1635): Churches v. Education
February 14 Teller (1948)
February 14 Simon Pegg (1970)
February 15 Galileo (1564)
February 15 Susan B. Anthony (1820)
February 15 Jeremy Bentham (1748)
February 16 Natalie Angier (1958)
February 17 Giordano Bruno Burned for Heresy (1600)
February 18 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles (1954)
February 19 Nicholas Copernicus (1473)
February 19 Svante Arrhenius (1859)
February 20 Robert Altman (1925)
February 20 James A. Haught (1932)
February 21 Jimmy Swaggart Busted for Hypocrisy (1988)
February 21 Pussy Riot Arrested for Protest Art in Church (2012)
February 22 George Washington (1732)
February 22 Arthur Schopenhauer (1788)
February 22 August Bebel (1840)
February 23 W.E.B. Du Bois (1868)
February 23 Christians and the Diocletian Persecution (303)
February 24 Arrigo Boito (1842)
February 24 George Moore (1852)
February 25 “The Passion of the Christ” released (2004)
February 26 Victor Hugo (1802)
February 26 François Arago (1786)
February 27 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807)
February 27 Ernest Renan (1823)
February 28 Michel de Montaigne (1533)

March

Richard Dawkins

March 1 William M. Gaines (1922)
March 1 William Dean Howells (1837)
March 1 Javier Bardem (1969)
March 2 Mikhail S. Gorbachev (1931)
March 2 Leo XIII (1810)
March 3 Ira Glass (1959)
March 4 Pope Eugene IV (1431): Spirituality and Brutality
March 5 Penn Jillette (1955)
March 6 Michelangelo (1475)
March 6 Gabriel García Márquez (1927)
March 7 Luther Burbank (1849)
March 7 Aristotle (d. 322 BCE)
March 7 André Morellet (1727)
March 8 Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841)
March 8 James Macartney (1770)
March 9 Michael Kinsley (1951)
March 9 Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (1749)
March 10 The Lie of Arnold Toynbee (1937): Christianity’s True Record
March 11 Douglas Adams (1952)
March 11 Nina Hartley (1959)
March 12 Simon Newcomb (1835)
March 12 Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863)
March 12 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881)
March 13 Percival Lowell (1855)
March 14 Albert Einstein (1879)
March 15 French Headscarf Ban Becomes Law (2004)
March 15 Cesare Beccaria (1738)
March 16 James Madison (1751)
March 17 The Miracles of St. Patrick (d. 461)
March 18 Marilla Marks Ricker (1840)
March 19 Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821)
March 20 Henrik Ibsen (1828)
March 21 Jean Bapiste Joseph Fourier (1768)
March 21 Benito Juárez (1806)
March 22 The Butler Act v. Evolution (1925)
March 23 Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” Speech (1775)
March 24 Harry Houdini (1874)
March 24 William Morris (1834)
March 25 Percy Bysshe Shelley Expelled for “The Necessity of Atheism” (1811)
March 25 Béla Bartók (1881)
March 26 Richard Dawkins (1941)
March 26 Keira Knightley (1985)
March 26 Paul Erdős (1913)
March 27 Typhoid Mary (1915): Religion v. Sanitation
March 27 Alfred de Vigny (1797)
March 27 John Ballance (1839)
March 28 Maxim Gorky (1868)
March 28 Daniel Dennett (1942)
March 28 Francisco de Miranda (1754)
March 29 Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826)
March 29 Ludwig Büchner (1824)
March 30 Churches v. Anesthesia (1842)
March 31 René Descartes (1596)
March 31 Barney Frank (1940)

April

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

April 1 Milan Kundera (1929)
April 1 Abraham Maslow (1909)
April 2 Émile Zola (1840)
April 2 Camille Paglia (1947)
April 3 Marlon Brando (1924)
April 3 John Burroughs (1837)
April 4 Raid on YFZ Ranch (2008)
April 4 David Cross (1964)
April 4 Remy de Gourmont (1858)
April 4 Ignatius Loyola: First Jesuit General (1541)
April 5 Thomas Hobbes (1588)
April 6 Joseph Smith Founds the Mormon Church (1830)
April 7 Francis Xavier (1506): Saint and Failure
April 8 Buddha (560 BCE)
April 8 Yip Harburg (1896)
April 9 Tom Lehrer (1928)
April 9 François Rabelais (d. 1553)
April 10 Founding the ASPCA (1866): Churches and Animal Cruelty
April 11 Last Witch Burning in Germany (1775): Churches v. Witchcraft
April 12 Mahavira (c560 BCE), Founder of Modern Jainism
April 13 Thomas Jefferson (1743)
April 13 Christopher Hitchens (1949)
April 13 Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919)
April 14 First US Abolitionist Society Founded (1775): Churches and Slavery
April 15 Leonardo da Vinci (1452)
April 15 Emma Thompson (1959)
April 16 Anatole France (1844)
April 17 Pope Benedict III (d. 858), Dark Ages
April 18 Clarence Darrow (1857)
April 18 “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” released (2008)
April 19 Branch Davidian Conflagration, Waco (1993)
April 20 Adolph Hitler (1889)
April 20 Columbine Massacre (1999)
April 21 Inherit the Wind Opens on Broadway (1955)
April 22 “In God We Trust” on US Coins (1864)
April 22 Jack Nicholson (1937)
April 22 Immanuel Kant (1724)
April 23 Max Planck (1858)
April 23 Stephen A. Douglas (1813)
April 23 J.M.W. “Joseph” Turner (1775)
April 23 William Shakespeare (1564)
April 24 Library of Congress Established (1800): Churches v. Libraries
April 25 James D. Watson and Francis Crick Describe DNA (1953)
April 26 Eugène Delacroix (1798)
April 26 Marcus Aurelius (121 CE)
April 26 Henry Charlton Bastian (1837)
April 27 Ulysses S. Grant (1822)
April 27 Mary Wollstonecraft (1759)
April 28 Freemasonry Condemned by Pope Clement XII (1738)
April 28 Synod of Aachen (862): Churches v. Divorce
April 28 Terry Pratchett (1948)
April 29 Hugh of Cluny (1109): The Age of Chivalry
April 30 George Washington Inaugurated (1789)

May

George Carlin

May 1 May Day General Strike (1866): Churches v. Workers
May 1 Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian (305 CE): Christian Persecutions
May 2 Catherine II (the Great) of Russia (1729)
May 3 Niccolò Machiavelli (1469)
May 4 Thomas Henry Huxley (1825)
May 4 Horace Mann (1796)
May 5 Karl Marx (1818)
May 5 John William Draper (1811)
May 6 George Clooney (1961)
May 6 Sigmund Freud (1856)
May 7 Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840)
May 7 Johannes Brahms (1833)
May 7 Robert Browning (1812)
May 7 David Hume (1711)
May 8 Edward Gibbon (1737)
May 9 The Pill Approved by FDA (1960): Churches v. Birth Control
May 9 Billy Joel (1949)
May 10 Nazi Book Burning in Germany (1933): Churches and Censorship
May 10 Cecilia Payne (1900)
May 11 Richard P. Feynman (1918)
May 11 Irving Berlin (1888)
May 12 George Carlin (1937)
May 12 Katharine Hepburn (1907)
May 12 Florence Nightingale (1820)
May 13 Pope Gregory XIII Elected (1572): Calendar Reform
May 14 State of Israel Declared (1948): Christianity and Anti-Semitism
May 15 National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) Formed (1869): Churches v. Votes for Women
May 15 Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1689)
May 16 Studs Terkel (1912)
May 16 “Rerum novarum” Issued (1891): Churches v. Workers
May 17 “Godspell” opens on Broadway (1971)
May 18 Bertrand Russell (1872)
May 19 Anne Boleyn Executed for Adultery (1536): Churches and Adultery
May 20 John Stuart Mill (1806)
May 20 Honoré de Balzac (1799)
May 20 Ron Reagan Jr. (1958)
May 21 Alexander Pope (1688)
May 22 Richard Wagner (1813)
May 23 Dante Alighieri (under Gemini, 1265)
May 24 Samuel F.B. Morse Thanks God for What Man Hath Wrought (1844)
May 25 Sir Ian McKellen (1939)
May 25 W.P. Kinsella (1935)
May 25 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803)
May 25 Pope Gregory VII Hildebrand (d. 1085)
May 26 Alse Young: First Witch Executed in the US (1647)
May 27 Harlan Ellison (1934)
May 27 Adam Carolla (1964)
May 27 Paul Bettany (1971)
May 28 Corliss Lamont (1902)
May 29 Louise "Red Virgin" Michel (1830)
May 30 Mikhail Bakunin (1814)
May 31 Walt Whitman (1819)

June

Ricky Gervais

June 1 Chicago World's Fair (1933): Churches v. Progress
June 1 Morgan Freeman (1937)
June 2 Donati's Comet Discovered (1858): Churches and Comets
June 3 James Hutton (1726): Churches v. Geology
June 4 19th Amendment Passed (1919): Churches v. Suffrage
June 4 Angelina Jolie (1975)
June 4 Susan Jacoby (1945)
June 5 Adam Smith (1723)
June 6 Alexander Pushkin (1799): Churches and Dueling
June 6 Paul Giamatti (1967)
June 7 Muhammad (d. 632) and Islam
June 8 Frank Lloyd Wright (1867)
June 8 Robert Schumann (1810)
June 9 Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843), Anti-war Activist
June 10 Treaty with Tripoli (1797): Is America a Christian Nation?
June 11 Richard Strauss (1864)
June 11 Ben Jonson (1572)
June 11 Alexander Bain (1818)
June 11 Hugh Laurie (1959)
June 12 Wat Tyler’s Rebellion (1381): Peasants Revolt
June 13 William Butler Yeats (1865)
June 14 Flag Day (1777)
June 14 “Under God” Added to Pledge of Allegiance (1954)
June 15 Leo X Condemns Martin Luther (1520)
June 16 Founding the RSPCA (1822): Churches and Animal Cruelty
June 17 Last Witch Execution in Switzerland (1782)
June 17 Creating the “Sherbert Test” (1963): Burdens on Religious Practice
June 17 Barry Manilow (1943)
June 18 American Library Association Adopts “Library Bill of Rights” (1948)
June 18 Alphonse Laveran (1845)
June 19 José Rizal (1861)
June 19 Blaise Pascal (1623) and Pascal’s Wager
June 19 Salman Rushdie (1947)
June 19 Torcaso v. Watkins (1961): No Religious Test for Public Office
June 20 Lord Baltimore's Charter (1632): Religious Toleration in Maryland
June 21 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905)
June 22 Galileo Recants Before the Inquisition (1633)
June 22 Bill Blass (1922)
June 22 Julian Huxley (1887)
June 23 Joss Whedon (1964)
June 23 Edgardo Mortara “spared” from Judaism (1858)
June 24 Ambrose Bierce (1842)
June 24 Sacerdotalis cælibatus (1967): Religion and Celibacy
June 25 George Orwell (1903)
June 25 Ricky Gervais (1961)
June 25 Dan Barker (1949)
June 26 Pearl S. Buck (1892)
June 26 Adolf Bastian (1826)
June 27 Lafcadio Hearn (1850)
June 27 Augustus De Morgan (1806)
June 28 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712)
June 28 Luigi Pirandello (1867)
June 28 Paul Broca (1824)
June 28 The “Lemon Test” (1971) and Alton Lemon
June 29 Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (trad.): Was Peter Martyred at Rome?
June 29 Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (trad.): Forging the Papacy
June 30 Pontifical Biblical Commission (1909): Compelling Genesis as History

July

Daniel Radcliffe

July 1 Charles Laughton (1899)
July 1 George Sand (1804)
July 2 Nostradamus (d. 1566)
July 3 “Lamentabili sane” (1907): Churches v. Scholarship
July 3 Dave Barry (1947)
July 4 Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807)
July 4 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804)
July 5 Salvation Army Founded (1865)
July 5 Samuel Bailey (1791)
July 6 Jan Hus Burned for Heresy (1415)
July 6 Peter Singer (1946)
July 7 Robert A. Heinlein (1907)
July 8 American Psychological Association Organized (1892): Religion v. Psychology
July 8 Kevin Bacon (1958)
July 9 The Báb Executed (1850)
July 10 John Calvin (1509)
July 11 James A. M. Whistler (1834)
July 11 John Quincy Adams (1767)
July 11 Clement VII v. Henry VIII (1533): Excommunication
July 12 Henry David Thoreau (1817)
July 12 Public School Prayer (1995)
July 12 Günther Anders (1902)
July 12 William Osler (1849)
July 13 The Third Secret of Fátima Revealed (1917)
July 14 John Chancellor (1927)
July 14 Ingmar Bergman (1918)
July 14 Bastille Day (1789)
July 15 The First Crusade Captures Jerusalem (1099), Then Kills Everyone
July 16 Mary Baker Eddy and “Christian Science” (1821)
July 16 Muhammad's Hegira (622)
July 17 Donald Sutherland (1934)
July 17 Phyllis Diller (1917)
July 18 Papal Infallibility (1870)
July 18 Richard Branson (1950)
July 18 William Makepeace Thackeray (1811)
July 19 Christianizing the Indians (1649)
July 20 The First Movie Kiss (1910)
July 20 Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864)
July 21 John T. Scopes Found Guilty of Teaching Science! (1925)
July 21 Ernest Hemingway (1899)
July 22 Gregor Mendel (1822)
July 23 Alan Hale and Comet Hale-Bopp (1995)
July 23 Daniel Radcliffe (1989)
July 24 Simón Bolívar (1783)
July 25 Guy de Chauliac (1368): Churches v. Medicine
July 26 George Bernard Shaw (1856)
July 27 Giosuè Carducci (1835)
July 27 Alexandre Dumas fils (1834)
July 27 Thomas Campbell (1777)
July 28 Karl Popper (1902)
July 28 Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (1804)
July 29 Urban VIII (d. 1644)
July 30 E. Haldeman-Julius (1889)
July 31 Sir Thomas Malory’s “Morte d’Arthur” published (1485): The Age of Chivalry

August

Robert Ingersoll

August 1 Marquis de Lamarck (1744)
August 1 Herman Melville (1819)
August 1 James Gleick (1954)
August 2 John Tyndall (1820)
August 2 James Baldwin (1924)
August 3 Rupert Brooke (1887)
August 3 Étienne Dolet (1724)
August 4 Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792)
August 5 Guy de Maupassant (1850)
August 6 Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809)
August 6 Asia Carrera (1973)
August 7 The Virgin Mary (1555): Religion and Virginity
August 7 James “The Amazing” Randi (1928)
August 8 “Quam singulari” (1910): Christian Communion
August 9 Sixtus IV (1471)
August 9 Marvin Minsky (1927)
August 10 Royal Observatory Opens (1675): Churches v. Astronomy
August 11 Robert Green Ingersoll (1833)
August 11 Alexander VI (1492)
August 12 “The Last Temptation of Christ” Released (1988)
August 12 George Soros (1930)
August 12 Jacinto Benavente (1866)
August 13 Fidel Castro (1926)
August 14 Russell Baker (1925)
August 14 John Galsworthy (1867)
August 15 Napoleon Bonaparte (1769)
August 15 Sylvain Maréchal (1750)
August 16 Wilhelm Max Wundt (1832)
August 16 James Cameron (1954)
August 17 Sean Penn (1960)
August 17 Bill Clinton’s “Map Room Speech” (1998): Churches and Confession
August 17 Femen Cuts the Cross in Kiev (2012)
August 18 King of Siam's Eclipse (1868): Churches and Eclipses
August 19 Gene Roddenberry (1921)
August 20 H.P. Lovecraft (1890)
August 20 Bernardo O’Higgins (1778)
August 21 Jules Michelet (1798)
August 21 Bernard Becomes a Saint (1153): What Sainthood Means
August 22 Ray Bradbury (1920)
August 22 Claude Debussy (1862)
August 23 World Council of Churches Formed (1948): What is a Church?
August 24 Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572)
August 25 Forging the Shroud of Turin (1978)
August 26 Charles Richet (1850)
August 26 Robert Walpole (1676)
August 26 Declaration of the Rights of Man (1751)
August 26 Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (1740)
August 26 Barbara Ehrenreich (1941)
August 27 Georg W.F. Hegel (1770)
August 27 Confucius (551 BCE)
August 28 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749)
August 29 John Locke (1632)
August 29 Maurice Maeterlinck (1862)
August 30 Warren Buffet (1930)
August 30 Jacques-Louis David (1748)
August 31 Hermann von Helmholtz (1821)
August 31 Théophile Gautier (1811)

September

H. L. Mencken

September 1 Alan M. Dershowitz (1938)
September 1 Auguste Forel (1848)
September 2 The Great Fire of London (1666)
September 3 Gregory I (“the Great”) Becomes Pope (590) How Great Was He?
September 3 John (J.M.E.) McTaggart (1866)
September 4 Richard Wright (1908)
September 5 The Reign of Terror (1793) and the Churches
September 6 Jane Addams (1860)
September 6 Bruno Bauer (1809)
September 7 Queen Elizabeth I (1533)
September 8 Pledge of Allegiance Published (1892)
September 8 Michael Shermer (1954)
September 9 Cardinal Richelieu (1585)
September 10 Stephen Jay Gould (1941)
September 11 September 11 (2001)
September 11 Gherman S. Titov (1935)
September 12 H.L. Mencken (1880)
September 13 Roger Williams Banished (1635): Separation of Church and State
September 14 Margaret Sanger (1879)
September 15 William Howard Taft (1857)
September 16 Tomás de Torquemada (d. 1498)
September 17 Marquis de Condorcet (1743)
September 18 Roman Polanski (1933)
September 18 Steven Pinker (1954)
September 19 Giles Corey (d. 1692): Churches and Torture
September 20 Upton Sinclair (1878)
September 21 H. G. Wells (1866)
September 22 The Angel Moroni Appears to Joseph Smith (1827)
September 23 Ani DiFranco (1970)
September 24 Horace Walpole (1717)
September 25 Bill of Rights Passed by the U.S. Congress (1789)
September 26 Charles Bradlaugh (1833)
September 27 Stephan Jenkins (1964)
September 27 Pope Paul III Approves the Jesuits (1540)
September 28 Friedrich Engels (1820)
September 29 Michael Servetus (1511)
September 30 Johann Gutenberg (1452) and His Bible

October

Gore Vidal

October 1 Annie Besant (1847)
October 2 Sir Patrick Geddes (1854)
October 2 Sir William Ramsay (1852)
October 2 Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832)
October 3 Gore Vidal (1925)
October 4 Promise Keepers March on Washington (1997)
October 5 Bob Geldof (1954)
October 5 John Addington Symonds (1840)
October 5 Denis Diderot (1713)
October 5 Robin Lane Fox (1946)
October 6 William Tyndale (d. 1536)
October 6 Anwar Sadat (d. 1981)
October 7 Cornell University Founded (1865)
October 8 The Council of Chalcedon (451) and the Split Personality of Jesus
October 9 John Lennon (1940)
October 9 Temple of Apollo Dedicated (28 BCE): Christianity v. Paganism
October 10 Giuseppe Verdi (1813)
October 10 Fridtjof Nansen (1861)
October 10 Henry Cavendish (1731)
October 11 Henry VIII (1521): Defender of the Faith
October 12 Columbus Discovers the New World (1492)
October 12 “Jesus Christ Superstar” opens on Broadway (1971)
October 13 The Knights Templars Arrested (1307): Unlucky 13?
October 13 Lenny Bruce (1925)
October 13 Rudolf Virchow (1821)
October 14 Sun Myung Moon Released from Prison (1950): Moonies Over America
October 15 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917)
October 15 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844)
October 16 Oscar Wilde (1854)
October 17 Consecration of Chartres Cathedral (1260)
October 18 George C. Scott (1927)
October 18 Henri Bergson (1859)
October 18 Rebecca Watson (1980)
October 19 Leigh Hunt (1784)
October 19 Sir Thomas Browne (1605)
October 20 John Dewey (1859)
October 21 Alfred Nobel (1833)
October 22 The Great Disappointment (1844)
October 23 James Ussher and the Creation (4004 BCE)
October 24 Peace of Westphalia (1648) Religion and the Thirty Years War
October 24 Eugenie Scott (1945)
October 24 Sir James Mackintosh (1765)
October 25 Georges Bizet (1838)
October 25 Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400)
October 26 François Mitterand (1916)
October 26 Georges Danton (1759)
October 26 Seth MacFarlane (1973)
October 27 Niccolò Paganini (1782)
October 27 Desiderius Erasmus (1466)
October 28 Bill Gates (1955)
October 28 Constantine the Great (312 CE)
October 29 Cyrus the Great Conquers Babylon (539 BCE): The End of the Babylonian “Captivity”
October 30 John Adams (1735)
October 31 John Keats (1795)
October 31 Martin Luther's Reformation (1517)

November

Carl Sagan

November 1 Larry Flynt (1942)
November 2 Burt Lancaster (1913)
November 2 Annie Laurie Gaylor (1955)
November 3 Sir Ludovic Kennedy (1919)
November 3 King Henry VIII and the First Act of Supremacy (1534): Joining Church and State
November 4 Eden Phillpotts (1862)
November 4 Howard Carter and Ancient Egypt (1922)
November 4 Kathy Griffin (1960)
November 5 J.B.S. Haldane (1892)
November 5 Will Durant (1885)
November 6 Mike Nichols (1931)
November 6 Cesare Lombroso (1835)
November 6 Greg Graffin (1965)
November 6 Griff Rhys-Jones (1953)
November 7 Albert Camus (1913)
November 7 Marie Curie (1867)
November 7 Leon Trotsky (1879)
November 8 Émile Combes and Church-State Separation (1904)
November 8 Edmund Halley (1656)
November 9 Carl Sagan (1934)
November 9 Ivan Turgenev (1818)
November 10 Richard Burton (1925)
November 10 Friedrich von Schiller (1759)
November 11 Kurt Vonnegut Jr (1922)
November 11 Joseph McCabe (1867)
November 12 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815)
November 13 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850)
November 13 St. Augustine (354)
November 14 Jawaharlal Nehru (1889)
November 14 Charles Lyell (1797)
November 15 William Pitt the Elder (1708)
November 15 Albertus Magnus (d. 1280)
November 16 US Recognizes USSR (1933): Atheism and Communism
November 17 “Frailty” Film Premiere (2001)
November 18 Jim Jones and the People’s Temple Suicide (1978)
November 18 Pierre Bayle (1647)
November 18 The Biblical Flood (2347 BCE)
November 19 Jodie Foster (1962)
November 19 Ted Turner (1938)
November 19 Dick Cavett (1936)
November 19 Larry King (1933)
November 20 Nadine Gordimer (1923)
November 20 Edward Westermarck (1862)
November 20 Thomas Chatterton (1752)
November 21 Voltaire (1694)
November 21 Björk (1965)
November 22 George Eliot (1819)
November 23 Blaise Pascal's Conversion (1654)
November 23 Ronald Bruce Meyer (1954)
November 24 Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632)
November 25 Andrew Carnegie (1835)
November 26 The First Thanksgiving (1621): A Secular Celebration
November 26 Charles M. Schulz (1922)
November 27 The First Crusade (1095)
November 27 Bruce Lee (1940)
November 28 Randy Newman (1943)
November 28 Sir Leslie Stephen (1832)
November 29 Louis XVI Recognizes Protestants (1787): Religious Toleration
November 30 Mark Twain (1835)

December

Woody Allen

December 1 Woody Allen (1935)
December 1 Sarah Silverman (1970)
December 2 Hernando Cortes (d. 1547): Conquest and Christianity
December 3 Joseph Conrad (1857)
December 4 Samuel Butler (1835)
December 4 Thomas Carlyle (1795)
December 5 Monty Python's Last Flying Circus (1974)
December 5 Martin Van Buren (1782)
December 6 Thomas Edison's First Sound Recording (1877)
December 6 Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778)
December 7 End of the Great Schism (1965)
December 7 Pietro Mascagni (1863)
December 8 Diego Rivera (1886)
December 8 Björnstjerne Björnson (1832)
December 8 Pius IX: Immaculate Conception (1854)
December 8 Pius IX: Syllabus of Errors (1864)
December 8 Baron D'Holbach (1723)
December 9 John Malkovich (1953)
December 9 Peter Kropotkin (1842)
December 9 Richard Carlile (1790)
December 9 John Milton (1608)
December 10 Hugh M. Hefner and “Playboy” (1953)
December 10 Averroës (d. 1198)
December 11 Hector Berlioz (1803)
December 12 Gustave Flaubert (1821)
December 12 Erasmus Darwin (1731)
December 13 Heinrich Heine (1797)
December 13 Council of Trent (1545)
December 13 William Lloyd Garrison (1805)
December 14 Pierre Samuel Dupont (1739)
December 14 Sir John Oldcastle (d. 1417) and the Lollard Heresy
December 15 Penn Educates Lawyers (1790): Christianity and Law
December 16 George Santayana (1863)
December 16 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770)
December 17 Saturnalia and Christmas
December 18 Pius XII, “Optatissima pax” (1947) and the Powerlessness of Prayer
December 18 Brad Pitt (1963)
December 19 Richard Leakey (1944)
December 19 Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol (1843)
December 20 Uri Geller (1946)
December 20 Sidney Hook (1902)
December 21 Frank Zappa (1940)
December 22 Pope Leo XIII Proclaims a Jubilee (1885): What Is a Jubilee?
December 23 Jean François Champollion (1790)
December 24 Matthew Arnold (1822)
December 25 Christmas Day (4 BCE?)
December 25 Quentin Crisp (1908)
December 25 Clara Barton (1821)
December 26 “The Exorcist” Released (1973): Exorcism
December 27 Louis Pasteur (1822)
December 28 Westminster Abbey Consecrated (1065): Apostates at the Abbey
December 29 Murder of Thomas Becket (1170)
December 30 The Vatican Recognizes Israel (1993)
December 31 Andreas Vesalius (1514)