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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's July 4th, 1862 on the River Thames near Oxford, England. 30 year old Professor Charles Dodgson pulls on the oars of a small rowboat.

It's a glorious day and Charles doesn't have any classes to teach so he's making the most of a summer afternoon.

But he isn't alone. Sat with him in the boat are three daughters of a university

colleague. As Charles guides the rowboat upriver, the girls lounge on the seats and watch

the world go by. But the middle daughter, 10-year-old Alice, is getting on the of water and splashing her older sisters. As the girls began squabbling, the rowboat rocks alarmingly,

Charles realizes that he needs to calm the kids, otherwise his leisurely afternoon is going to end in wet disaster.

Suddenly a blue streak shoots in front of the boat

catching the girl's attention. It's a bird, a kingfisher,

disappearing into its nest near the bank bank and that gives Charles an idea.

With the girl stunned into silence by the blue bird, Charles resumes rolling but this time

he begins telling a story as he works the oars.

He improvises a tale of a girl tumbling into a hole, and Charles smiles at the precocious

middle daughter as he reveals the name of the girl who falls into that fantastical world, Alice.

This spur of the moment story leaves the three girls enthralled, and when Charles Dodgson drops them off at home that

evening Alice begs Charles to write the story down for her. Thanks to her

pleading Charles was set to work turning his whimsical improvisation into a

proper manuscript.

The tale will eventually be published under Charles's pen name Louis Carroll

and become the classic of children's literature, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

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