Curated playlist
1897 births
- Ramdas GandhiRamdas Gandhi lit his father Mahatma Gandhi's funeral pyre. He had wanted the task, and it was granted to him.
- William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner never told his daughter he had won the Nobel Prize. She heard it when the principal called her in.
- Joseph GoebbelsJoseph Goebbels was Chancellor of Germany for a single day.
- Adolf HeusingerAdolf Heusinger stood beside Hitler when the 1944 bomb went off and later chaired NATO's Military Committee.
- Henri FrankfortHenri Frankfort argued Egyptian civilization arose from an African base, not an Asian one.
- Georges BatailleGeorges Bataille's secret society Acéphale never found an executioner. Every member had agreed to be the victim.
- Subhas Chandra BoseSubhas Chandra Bose is remembered in India as Netaji, a Hindustani title that means Respected Leader. The name did not begin on Indian soil. It was first used in early 1942, in Berlin. The speakers were soldiers of the Indische Legion,…
- Lucky LucianoLucky Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania, was arrested 25 times between 1916 and 1936 and spent no time in prison. The charges ranged from assault and illegal gambling to blackmail and robbery. Then a trial over a prostitution racket ended…
- Fletcher PrattFletcher Pratt was arrested at eighteen for robbing cash drawers. He became a noted military historian.
- Wilhelm ReichIn 1956, a United States court ordered six tons of Wilhelm Reich's books and papers burned.
- Ole ColbjørnsenOle Colbjørnsen's 1933 pamphlet gave Norway's Labour Party its slogan, "the whole people at work."
- Károly KerényiKároly Kerényi handed back his passport in 1944 and became a stateless refugee.
- Naomi MitchisonNaomi Mitchison listed her Who's Who hobby as "burning rubbish." She also wrote more than 90 books and lived to 101.
- Hans SpeidelHans Speidel took the call ordering Paris destroyed and passed it on to no one. Hitler's order came on August 26, 1944.
- G. Wilson KnightG. Wilson Knight directed and acted in Shakespeare's tragedies to test his own ideas.
- Marian AndersonMarian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial weeks after being banned from Constitution Hall.