1/23/1937 There is a Corpse Next Door

January 23, 1937.  The issue of Detective Fiction Weekly with this date on the cover featured a story by the great Cornell Woolrich entitled "The Corpse Next Door."  Someone is stealing the protagonist's milk bottles and he objects.  Things get out of hand and soon there is more than spilled milk to cry about.

In 1980 Mark Reichert directed a film adaptation called Union City, starring Dennis Lipscomb and Debby Harry (yes, of Blondie fame).

2/17/1924 Cornell Woolrich in a hotel room

February 17, 1924.  Cornell Woolrich wrote a novel called Hotel Room, published in 1958.  Each chapter was a separate story taking place in Room 923 of the Hotel St. Anselm  in New York.  The story set us on this day involved a gangster in big trouble.

5/19/1934 Cornell Woolrich becomes a paid crime writer

May 19, 1934.  On this date Detective Fiction Weekly sent Cornell Woolrich a check for "Death Sits In The Dentist's Chair."  The story, about a reporter trying to prove that his dentist friend did not poison a patient, appeared in the August fourth issue.  It was Woolrich's first sale in the crime market.  More than a hundred followed, plus novels.  The recluse who lived with his mother in a hotel was a master of paranoia and noir.  Oh, he was paid $110 for the story.  Good money in those days.

Sources: Nevins, Francis.  First You Dream, Then You Die.
Irwin, John T.  Unless The Threat of Death is Behind Them