Curated playlist
1891 births
- James ChadwickJames Chadwick signed up for physics by mistake. He meant to study mathematics, then found the neutron.
- Max ErnstMax Ernst wrote that he died in 1914 and was resurrected in 1918. He meant his years as a soldier.
- Rudolf CarnapRudolf Carnap argued that most deep philosophical questions were meaningless.
- Erwin RommelErwin Rommel was forced to swallow cyanide in a German staff car a few miles from his own home.
- Sergei ProkofievComposer Sergei Prokofiev died the same day as Joseph Stalin, and his coffin went through back streets.
- Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz, a submarine commander, ended up as Germany's president. Hitler named him successor.
- B. R. AmbedkarB. R. Ambedkar said he would be the first to burn India's Constitution. He had chaired the committee that drafted it.
- Mikhail BulgakovStalin phoned banned playwright Mikhail Bulgakov in 1930 and asked if he wanted to leave.
- Frank CostelloFrank Costello, an Italian-American crime boss, tried to keep his face off television during the Senate's organized crime hearings. The attempt backfired. Cameras settled on his hands instead, and his fidgeting and evasive answers played…
- Fumimaro KonoeFumimaro Konoe swallowed potassium cyanide rather than face arrest for war crimes.
- Hans KohnHans Kohn resigned from a Zionist fundraising body in 1929 with a letter titled "Judaism is Not Zionism."
- Oskar HaleckiHistorian Oskar Halecki argued that Eastern Europe was no less European than Western Europe.
- Carl PanzramCarl Panzram told investigators that he had murdered twenty-one boys and men, yet only five of those killings could ever be confirmed. Authorities suspect the real toll in the United States alone passes one hundred, with more victims in…