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Curated playlist

1923 births

  • Ewart AbnerEwart Abner's label signed the Beatles in January 1963 after Capitol Records passed. The label was Vee-Jay Records.
  • Alan ShepardAn inner ear disease grounded astronaut Alan Shepard for years before he walked on the Moon.
  • Hank WilliamsHank Williams was already dead in a car's back seat when the driver noticed. He was 29.
  • Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger made a secret trip to China in July 1971. It helped end 23 years of diplomatic isolation.
  • Wally SchirraAstronaut Wally Schirra refused Mission Control's request to wear helmets.
  • Joseph HellerJoseph Heller's novel Catch-22 was first called Catch-18. It was renamed to avoid confusion with Mila 18.
  • Alan T. NolanAlan T. Nolan spent his life as both a Civil War historian and an Indiana attorney. He wrote The Iron Brigade in 1961.
  • Bert KaempfertBert Kaempfert signed the Beatles in 1961 to back singer Tony Sheridan. It became their first released recordings.
  • Walter PittsWalter Pitts, a homeless teenager, helped create the first mathematical model of a neural network.
  • Wojciech JaruzelskiWojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland on the 13th of December 1981. Later he helped end Communist rule.
  • Donald SwannDonald Swann set J. R. R. Tolkien's poems to music, and Tolkien joined the recording.
  • Joseph WeizenbaumJoseph Weizenbaum's secretary asked him to leave so she could keep chatting with his program. She knew it was a machine.
  • Irvin KershnerIrvin Kershner once asked George Lucas a direct question: "Of all the younger guys around, all the hot-shots, why me?" Kershner told the story himself, and Lucas had an answer ready: "Well, because you know everything a Hollywood director…
  • Robert MaxwellOxford United supporters had a chant for their chairman: “He's fat, he's round, he's never on the ground.” The chairman was Robert Maxwell, who used the club's old grounds, close to his office at Headington Hill Hall, to land his…
  • Yves BonnefoyYves Bonnefoy refused to call himself a poet. He said he was a critic or a historian.
  • Wat MisakaWat Misaka played for the New York Knicks in 1947, then quit basketball to become an engineer.
  • Leonid GaidaiLeonid Gaidai finished school two days before the Great Patriotic War began.

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