Great moments in history and popular culture happen every day, and ON THIS DAY will share a few of them with you. We’ll also point you to related resources in our collection, helping you to discover classic films, musical favorites, and historical tidbits. The primary focus will be on our e-material – e-books, e-audio, and downloadable and streamable music and film – but physical books and DVDs will also be part of the fun.

	On this day in 1891, Zora Neale Hurston was born. Hurston did significant anthropological work, gathering the folklore and reporting on customs of the American South and the Caribbean in the 1930s and 1940s. She is best remembered, though, for her fiction and poetry, particularly the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. The book was harshly received by other authors and critics of the Harlem Renaissance, who found it insufficiently political and detrimental to the image of the black community. Scholars in the Black Studies movement of the 1970s and 1980s rediscovered Hurston's work, and it has become firmly established in the literary canon. Their Eyes Were Watching God is available as an e-book from OverDrive, as an audiobook, and in print.
	On this day in 1899, Francis Poulenc was born. The French composer was among the first to understand the importance of the new recording industry, and took part in recordings of his own music as early as the late 1920s. His early music is witty and high-spirited; he never entirely lost his sense of humor, but a more serious side emerged later in his life, particularly in several works of sacred choral music. Several collections of Poulenc's music are available for streaming at Hoopla.
	And on this day in 1955, Marian Anderson became the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, singing the role of Ulrica in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. She was then named a permanent member of the Metropolitan company, though she never appeared there again. Anderson's stylistic range made her an inspiration to singers in many genres; available for streaming or download at Freegal are Anderson recordings ranging from spirituals to German art song.