2015 Event Juan Felipe Herrera, age 66, has been named by U.S. Congress as this year's national poet laureate; Herrera, who is the first Latino to be given the title, has served for the past three years as California poet laureate 2012 Event Anglo-Irish poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis' archive, which inclues manuscripts and a letter from W. H. Auden are donated to Oxford University's Bodelian Library by Tamasin and Daniel Day-Lewis 2012 Event In an effort to ease economic sanctions on Myanmar, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi embarks on a 17-day tour of the United States 2011 Event Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai of Kenya, dies while undergoing treatments for cancer 2010 Event Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus claims innocence while being investigated for diverting millions of dollars of aid money from Grameen Bank 2010 Event At an auction in Dublin, a handwritten poem written by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney sells for 4,800 euro 1998 Death Laxness, Iceland's Nobel Literature laureate, dies at 95 1992 Event Mona Van Duyn is named 1st female U.S. poet laureate 1991 Death Howard Nemerow, U.S. poet laureate (Pulitzer), dies 1987 Event New York Richard Wilbur appointed as U.S. poet laureate 1985 Event Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st) 1984 Event Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize winner, named 1st U.S. poet laureate 1957 Death Langston Hughes, poet laureate, dies 1952 Birthday Rita Dove, born in Akron, Ohio, author, poet, won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress 1993 1930 Birthday Ted Hughes, British poet laureate 1930 Birthday Ted Hughes, England, poet laureate, 1984- 1930 Death Robert S Bridges, poet laureate (Testament of beauty), dies at 85 1921 Birthday Richard Wilbur, 2nd U.S. Poet Laureate, Ceremony, Walking to Sleep 1920 Birthday Howard Nemerov, U.S., 3rd U.S. poet laureate and novelist, Blue Swallows 1913 Birthday Claude Simon, born in Antananarivo, Madagascar, writer, prize-winning author, 1985 Nobel Laureate in Literature, identified with the nouveau roman movement 1906 Birthday John Betjeman, poet laureate of England, Mount Zion 1906 Birthday John Betjeman, English Poet Laureate 1972-1984, Mount Zion 1905 Birthday Robert Penn Warren, 1st U.S. poet laureate, All the King's Men 1904 Birthday Cecil Day-Lewis, England, poet laureate/detective, Nicholas Blake 1878 Birthday John Masefield, England, 15th poet laureate, Salt-Water Ballads 1850 Event Lord Tennyson becomes British poet laureate 1844 Birthday Robert S Bridges, England, poet laureate, Eros and Psyche 1842 Birthday Ina Donna Coolbrith, U.S., poet laureate of California 1835 Birthday Alfred Austin, Leeds England, poet laureate of England, Garden 1809 Birthday Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet laureate of England 1774 Birthday Robert Southey, English poet laureate/biographer of Nelson 1770 Birthday William Wordsworth, England, poet laureate, Prelude 1728 Birthday Thomas Warton, poet laureate of England, Pleasures of Melancholy 1715 Death Nahum Tate, English poet/playwright/poet laureate, dies 1674 Birthday Nicholas Rowe, England, poet laureate, Jane Shore, Tamerlane 1671 Birthday Colley Cibber, England, dramatist/poet laureate, Love's Last Shift 1668 Event John Dryden (36) becomes 1st English poet laureate 1631 Birthday John Dryden, 1st poet laureate of England, All for Love
