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 1819, Julia Ward Howe was born. Howe published several volumes of poetry, essays, and travel writing, and was a prominent activist in the womens' suffrage movement of the late 19th century. She is best remembered, though, for writing the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," set to the tune of the Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body." Several different versions of "Battle Hymn" are available for streaming or download at Freegal; among others, you can hear it sung by Andy Williams, Leontyne Price, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Gene Autry.
	On this day in 1894, Dashiell Hammett was born. Hammett's body of fiction is relatively small, five novels and about fifty short stories, but it has given us some of the most memorable detectives in crime fiction -- Sam Spade, the Continental Op, Nick and Nora Charles. Virtually all of his fiction was published by the time he was forty years old; he would live until 1961, but published only a handful of short stories after 1934. The Maltese Falcon, the novel that introduced Sam Spade, is available as an e-book or e-audio from OverDrive, or in print.
	And on this day in 1911, Vincent Price was born. Price appeared in more than 100 movies, and became particularly well known for his performances in horror movies. He was also an accomplished chef who published several cookbooks, and an art collector who donated some 2,000 works of art to establish the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. In the 1974 movie Madhouse, Price plays a has-been horror movie actor trying to make a comeback in television; it's available for streaming at Hoopla.