Classics Calendar for March 24

Nineteenth-century illustration of "Paul Revere's Ride" by
Charles Green Bush illustrates the scene described
in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem

Here are today's milestones:

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Born on this day:

Joseph Priestley (1733; died February 6, 1804) English theologian, natural philosopher, and chemist, who published over 150 works.

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William Morris (1834; died October 3, 1896) English poet and novelist who wrote News from Nowhere; The Well at the World's End; The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs

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John Wesley Powell (1834; died September 23, 1902) American explorer who wrote The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons

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Edward Weston (1886; died January 1, 1958) American photographer; Nautilus; the Pepper series; Dunes, Oceano; Nude, 1936; landscapes of American West

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919; died February 22, 2021) American poet; A Coney Island of the Mind

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Wilson Harris (1921; died March 8, 2018) Guyanese poet, novelist, and essayist; The Guyana Quartet (Palace of the Peacock; The Far Journey of Oudin; The Whole Armour; The Secret Ladder)

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Died on this day:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1882; born February 27, 1807) American poet; "Paul Revere's Ride"; The Song of Hiawatha; Evangeline

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Jules Verne (1905; born February 8, 1828) French novelist, poet, and playwright; Journey to the Center of the Earth; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Around the World in Eighty Days

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John Millington Synge (1909; born April 16, 1871) Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer, and folklorist; play The Playboy of the Western World

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Bonus Classic:

Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) Roman emperor and author who wrote Bellum Gallicum (The Gallic War)

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