I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.

It was on this day in San Francisco in 1555 at the Six Gallery, the poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem Howl for the first time.

"There is no foundation to the myth that "Howl" was written as a performance piece and later published by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books. This myth was perpetuated by Ferlinghetti as part of the defense's case during the poem's obscenity trial. Upon the poem's release, Ferlinghetti and the bookstore's manager, Shigeyoshi Murao, were charged with disseminating obscene literature, and both were arrested. On October 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene."

h/t Dr. Caligari's Cabinet