January 19, 1809. Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts. In forty mostly miserable years he managed to invent the mystery story (including such now-cliches as the master detective, the narrating assistant, the least-likely suspect, the roman a clef, the obvious clue, the inverted mystery, and on and on). He also earned some credit for the formation of horror and science fiction, and wrote a pretty good poem about a birdie.
Born just a few weeks before a fella who would read Poe's stories for fun when he was in the White House---Abraham Lincoln!
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