Curated playlist
1938 births
- Leonard H. LeskoLeonard H. Lesko can read all five stages of the Egyptian language. That includes Demotic and Coptic.
- Jerry WestThe NBA logo is a silhouette of Jerry West, and he was never paid for it.
- Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi sold CBS a show it already owned. CBS had acquired the Terrytoons library in 1955 and forgotten it.
- Eddie CochranPaul McCartney joined the Quarrymen by playing an Eddie Cochran song. The song was "Twenty Flight Rock".
- Charles HarrelsonCharles Harrelson went to prison for the murder of federal judge John H. Wood Jr., who was shot dead on the 29th of May 1979 in the parking lot outside his townhouse in San Antonio, Texas. No federal judge in the 20th century had been…
- Astrid KirchherrAstrid Kirchherr once summed up the night that changed her life in a single image: "It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing... My whole life changed in a couple of minutes." Kirchherr was a German…
- Klaus VoormannKlaus Voormann had never heard rock 'n' roll until a night in a Hamburg club. He heard the Beatles.
- Kofi AnnanKofi Annan became the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations only after France vetoed him four times and then finally chose to abstain. He was also the first holder of that office to be chosen from the organisation's own staff.…
- Jan AssmannEgyptologist Jan Assmann later admitted he no longer held his famous theory of monotheism in its original form.
- Bernie MadoffBernie Madoff told his own sons in December 2008 that the fund he ran was "just one big lie." Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier, born in 1938, who had once served as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. He admitted to…
- Bill HarryBill Harry gave Cilla Black her stage name by mistake. He misspelled singer Priscilla White's surname in an article.
- Lill-BabsIn 1963, the Beatles asked Swedish singer Lill-Babs for her autograph. They were then unknown outside Britain.
- Jim SimonsJim Simons, born James Harris Simons, once explained his dislike of publicity by borrowing a line from Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies. That's kind…
- Gary GygaxGary Gygax grew up hearing Wrigley Field crowds from his bedroom window. He later helped create Dungeons and Dragons.
- Alan SiegelAlan Siegel rewrote tax forms for the Internal Revenue Service. The 1979 work produced the 1040-EZ form.
- Vladimir VysotskyVladimir Vysotsky's death in 1980 drew tens of thousands into Moscow's streets. Officials had barely acknowledged him.