Curated playlist
1903 births
- George OrwellGeorge Orwell was a pen name, chosen from a shortlist in 1932. He was born Eric Arthur Blair in British India.
- Bing CrosbyBing Crosby had to re-record "White Christmas" in 1947 because the 1942 master had worn out.
- Russell BufalinoRussell Bufalino was born Rosario Alfredo Bufalino on the 29th of October 1903 in Montedoro, Sicily. He grew up to be an Italian-American mobster, and he led the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family for decades. People came to call it…
- Medard BossMedard Boss studied with Freud, then decided Freud was wrong.
- John von NeumannJohn von Neumann's father asked Theodore von Kármán to talk his son out of mathematics.
- Oleg LosevOleg Losev, a technician with no college degree, built the first light-emitting diode.
- John DillingerJohn Dillinger stepped out of the Biograph Theater in Chicago on the evening of the 22nd of July 1934. He had just watched Manhattan Melodrama, a crime drama starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and William Powell. Within minutes he was dead.…
- Joan RobinsonEconomist Joan Robinson coined a word in 1933 that the Supreme Court used in 2019.
- Theodor W. AdornoTheodor W. Adorno opened his first lecture of the summer semester in 1969 by inviting students to ask questions whenever they arose. A student wrote on the blackboard: "If Adorno is left in peace, capitalism will never cease." Three women…
- Howard Hayes ScullardHistorian Howard Hayes Scullard wrote chapters that were published only after he died.
- Raymond QueneauRaymond Queneau calculated that his book of sonnets would take 190,258,751 years to read nonstop.
- Hans JonasHans Jonas walked back into Germany as a British Army soldier. The Jewish philosopher had fled the country in 1933.
- Nikolai PodgornySoviet artists erased Nikolai Podgorny from a 1977 painting of the country's leaders. He had been its head of state.
- Galeazzo CianoGaleazzo Ciano voted to overthrow his father-in-law, Mussolini, and was shot six months later.
- Ronald SymeA 1939 book argued that Rome's first emperor, Augustus, ruled as a cunning autocrat.
- A. L. RowseA china clay worker's son from Cornwall claimed to name Shakespeare's Dark Lady.