Curated playlist
1900 births
- Noburō ŌfujiNoburō Ōfuji animated with patterned handmade Japanese paper. He used washi, including Edo chiyogami.
- Kurt WeillA song Kurt Weill wrote for a petty criminal in 1928 became a jazz standard.
- Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Himmler died by biting a hidden cyanide pill during a British exam. He was dead within 15 minutes.
- Ruhollah KhomeiniAt Ruhollah Khomeini's 1989 funeral, the body fell out of the coffin. Grieving crowds in Tehran forced a second funeral.
- Martin BormannOn the 16th of August 1999, the ashes of Martin Bormann were scattered over the Baltic Sea. German authorities chose open water partly so that neo-Nazis would have no tomb to turn into a monument. More than half a century after the war,…
- Jørgen VogtJørgen Vogt was held in three camps under German occupation for nearly four years.
- Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
- Devdas GandhiDevdas Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi's youngest son, had to wait five years to marry Lakshmi. They wed in 1933.
- Margaret MitchellMargaret Mitchell used part of her unfinished novel to prop up a wobbly couch.
- Queen Elizabeth the Queen MotherAdolf Hitler is said to have called Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother "the most dangerous woman in Europe." The reason, according to the story, was her popularity, which he saw as a threat to German interests. She was born Elizabeth Angela…
- Urho KekkonenOpponents once removed the chimney from a photo of Urho Kekkonen's birthplace. They wanted him to look poor.
- Erich FrommErich Fromm argued that falling in love is not love at all. His 1956 book The Art of Loving became a bestseller.
- Lord MountbattenLord Mountbatten sat alone in his study at the Viceroy's House as midnight arrived on the 15th of August 1947. India and Pakistan were becoming independent nations, and he reflected that for a few minutes more he remained the most powerful…
- Theodosius DobzhanskyTheodosius Dobzhansky went from collecting butterflies in Kiev to writing a landmark book on evolution.