(Photo: Publisher Alfred Knopf)

Critically acclaimed author and critic Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel, Beloved, which chronicles the story of a slave who is visited by the spirit of her deceased daughter. In 1998, the book was adapted into a movie starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

In addition, on this day in 1991, pop icon Whitney Houston performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Norfolk Naval Air Station for U.S. troops returning home from the Gulf War.  Her live recording of the anthem sold more than 750,000 records in just nine days.

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