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.
