Curated playlist

1912 births

John CageJohn Cage once had a pianist play nothing for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. Audience noise became the music.
J. Walter KennedyHow did a man with childhood polio, who never played sports, come to lead the NBA? That was J. Walter Kennedy.
Michelangelo AntonioniAfter a stroke took his speech, Michelangelo Antonioni kept directing films. He made Beyond the Clouds in 1995.
Lady Bird JohnsonLady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor, and almost nobody ever called her that. While she was still an infant, her nursemaid, Alice Tittle, remarked that the baby was as pretty as a ladybird. The comment became a lifelong name. Her…
Douglas KelleyDouglas McGlashan Kelley, an American Army psychiatrist, once had twenty-two of the highest-ranking men of Nazi Germany sitting in cells and waiting on his judgment. His assignment sounded simple. Decide whether any of them was mentally…
Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman argued the Federal Reserve let the money supply shrink by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
Kim Il SungKim Il Sung stepped off a ship in 1945 as a 33-year-old Soviet captain. He ruled North Korea for more than 45 years.
Kim PhilbyKim Philby lunched weekly with the CIA's counterintelligence chief while passing secrets to Moscow.
Thomas Stoltz HarveyThomas Harvey removed Albert Einstein's brain during his autopsy in 1955. He kept it for decades.
Woody GuthrieWoody Guthrie often played a guitar that carried a blunt message: "This machine kills fascists." He was an American singer, songwriter and composer who wrote hundreds of country, folk and children's songs, along with ballads and improvised…
Alan TuringAlan Turing once chained his tea mug to a radiator pipe at Bletchley Park so it could not be stolen.
Richard N. CurrentRichard N. Current became a Lincoln expert only because a colleague died. He had written about other figures first.
Otto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg, born to be emperor, spent nearly half a century in exile from Austria.
Pope John Paul IPope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, led the Catholic Church for only 33 days in 1978. When the cardinals asked whether he accepted his election, he answered, "May God forgive you for what you have done." Then he accepted. Before the…
Wernher von BraunWernher von Braun's V-2 rocket cost more lives to build than it took as a weapon.
Erich HoneckerErich Honecker voted for his own removal as East Germany's leader. The Politburo ousted him in October 1989.