Notable anniversaries to celebrate in 2023

“Do you ever wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always wait for the longest day of the year and then miss it!”

This is Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby talking about forgetting the Summer Solstice, but this could also be me with, well, everything. Somehow, I always find out a month later that the 100th anniversary of something really cool happened or I missed the 200th birthday of my favorite writer. (This second one was so me in 2021 with Dostoevsky. It could have finally been the year I reread The Brothers Karamazov, but I totally missed it.)

However, I don’t want you to be me. That’s why I’m making a list of anniversaries to look forward to in 2023, complete with what you can read in the Libby reading app to celebrate. Bookmark this page for fun the whole year long.

Famous birthdays

🎉Turning 100

Joseph Heller, American author of novels, short stories and screenplays (1923)

• What to read: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Italo Calvino, Italian writer and journalist (1923)

• What to read: If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Nadine Gordimer, South African writer and political activist (1923)

• What to read: July’s People by Nadine Gordimer

Larry Doby, American professional baseball player and the second black player to break baseball's color barrier (1923)

• As a native Northeast Ohioan, I grew up on stories of Cleveland baseball in the 1940s, and that meant hearing about groundbreaking future Hall of Famer, Larry Doby. This is the centennial of his birth, and at least here in the Cleveland area, we plan to celebrate.
• What to read: Our Team by Luke Epplin

Rocky Marciano, American professional boxer and the only heavyweight champion to go undefeated throughout his career (1923)

• What to read: Unbeaten by Mike Stanton

Maria Callas, American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century (1923)

• If I’m not reading, I’m watching an opera. Heck, even when I am reading, there’s a good chance I’m listening to opera. And no one has ever sung as exquisitely as Maria Callas, the remarkable Greek soprano whose private life was its own opera-worthy melodrama. Obviously, I will be celebrating this year listening to her sing Tosca and Norma and Madame Butterfly, but there are also plenty of fascinating books to read about this great singer while listening.
• What to read: Cast a Diva by Lyndsy Spence

Tito Puente, American musician, songwriter and record producer of Puerto Rican descent (1923)

• What to read: The Book of Salsa by César Miguel Rondón

Hank Williams, American country-western singer and songwriter (1923)

• What to read: Hank by Mark Ribowsky

🎉Turning 150

Colette, French novelist (1873)

• What to read: Chéri and the End of Chéri by Colette

Willa Cather, American novelist on frontier life (1873)

• What to read: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

John McGraw, American Major League Baseball player and manager of the New York Giants for almost 30 years (1873)

• What to read: The Old Ball Game by Frank Deford

Enrico Caruso, Italian opera singer known as the “Greatest Tenor” and the “world’s first popstar” (1873)

• What to read: The Art of Singing by Enrico Caruso

W.C. Handy, American composer and musician who referred to himself as the “Father of the Blues” (1873)

• What to read: Beale Street Dynasty by Preston Lauterbach

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer of classical music (1873)

• What to read: Sergei Rachmaninoff by Rebecca Mitchell

🎉Turning 250

William Henry Harrison, U.S. president who served the shortest term (just a single month!) (1773)

• What to read: William Henry Harrison by Gail Collins

🎉Turning 300

Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (1723)

• What to read: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

🎉Turning 400

Blaise Pascal, great 17th-century philosopher, mathematician and physicist (1623)

• What to read: Pensees by Blaise Pascal

Notable events in history

🕊️ The 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War (1973)

• What to read: Who by Fire by Matti Friedman

🕊️ The 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War (1973)

• What to read: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

📗 The 50th anniversary of the publication of The Gulag Archipelago (1973)

• What to read: ­The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

⭐ The 100th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of Turkey (1923)

• What to read: Turkey by Norman Stone

🗽The 100th anniversary of the death of President Warren G. Harding (1923)

• What to read: The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton McCartney

📜 The 200th anniversary of The Monroe Doctrine (1823)

• What to read: The Monroe Doctrine by Jay Sexton

🍵 The 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party (1773)

• Not crazy about England’s interference in the Colonial economy, Bostonians took their boycott of British tea about as far as they could by dumping a shipload of tea in the harbor rather than allow it to be unloaded and sold. A lot led up to this formative moment in American history, and a lot came of it. Celebrate with a strong coffee and a good book.
• What to read: The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

🎭 The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623)

• Four hundred years ago, folio books were reserved for religious and historical texts and had never been used in England for the publishing of plays. But 7 years after his death, William Shakespeare’s friends and devoted actors banded together to publish the first edition of his complete works in folio format. So, use this anniversary to start using “Zounds!” in everyday conversation and quoting even the obscure plays, like Timon of Athens.

• What to read: Shakespeare's Book by Chris Laoutaris (Coming in April just in time for Shakespeare’s birthday!)

Sports milestones

🏈 The 50th anniversary of the Dolphins’ undefeated season, the only undefeated season in NFL history (1973)

• What to read: Seventeen and Oh by Marshall Jon Fisher

🎾 The 50th anniversary of the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match (1973)

• What to read: Billie Jean King by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Miranda Sofroniou

⚾ The 100th anniversary of Yankee Stadium opening (1923)

• What to read: Yankee Stadium by Gary Hermalyn and Anthony C. Greene

🏎️ The 100th anniversary of the First Grand Prix/24 Hours of Le Mans (1923)

• What to read: The Racers by Neal Bascomb

For more reading recommendations, plus all of the books above, check out this list and then borrow from your library in Libby, the reading app from your local library.