The date is known for some famous and not-so-famous wars and massacres and atrocities. So maybe, for once, we recognize some birthdays . . . literary:
- Juhani Aho, originally Johannes Brofeldt (1861 – August 8, 1921), Finnish author and journalist. “It’s having hope which requires having guts. So wear your heart on your sleeve and if it bleeds, let it, so long as it still beats.”
- William Sydney Porter (1862 – June 5, 1910 — pictured), who under his pen name O. Henry earned fame for being the master of the American “surprise ending” short story writer. “A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.”
- David Herbert Lawrence (1885 – March 2, 1930), an English writer and poet. “Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.”