Curated playlist
1942 births
- Jimi HendrixJimi Hendrix's first guitar was a one-string ukulele found in the garbage. He learned by ear to Elvis songs.
- Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
- Aretha FranklinOtis Redding said Aretha Franklin took his song "Respect" away from him. Her version hit number one in 1967.
- Harrison FordHarrison Ford got Han Solo after reading lines for other actors' auditions. George Lucas slowly decided he wanted Ford.
- Roger EbertRoger Ebert typed his last blog post two days before he died. He signed off with "I'll see you at the movies."
- Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
- John Wayne GacyOn the 21st of December 1978, an evidence technician named Daniel Genty crawled into a space measuring 28 by 38 feet beneath a ranch-style house outside Chicago. He worked his way to the southwest corner and began to dig. Within minutes he…
- Muhammad AliMuhammad Ali refused three times to step forward for his Army induction in 1967. He lost his boxing title that same day.
- Brian WilsonOn a flight to Houston in 1964, Brian Wilson broke down sobbing. He then quit touring with the Beach Boys.
- Christina ScullChristina Scull, a museum librarian for 24 years, won a Tolkien scholarship award five times with her husband.
- Ann DunhamStanley Ann Dunham grew up answering to a name that other children found funny. She kept using it through high school, "apologizing for it each time she introduced herself in a new town." By the time she reached college, she was going by…
- Howard KazanjianHoward Kazanjian proposed filming Return of the Jedi as a fake horror movie called Blue Harvest.
- Janet NelsonAfter her 1967 PhD, Janet Nelson's supervisor reportedly told a colleague not to speak of her.
- Magic AlexA plastic box of random blinking lights won Magic Alex a lab from the Beatles. Lennon stared at it for hours on LSD.
- David SternDavid Stern began shipping VHS tapes of NBA games to Chinese state television in 1987.
- Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand once filed a lawsuit that sent a crowd of strangers to look at a single photograph. In 2003 she claimed that a website documenting coastal erosion had invaded her privacy. Among its more than 12,000 images, one happened to…
- Stephen HawkingDoctors gave Stephen Hawking two years to live at age 21, but he died at 76.
- Michael CrichtonMichael Crichton once submitted a George Orwell essay as his own and got a B-minus.
- Roger McGuinnRoger McGuinn was born James Joseph McGuinn III on the 13th of July 1942, and he chose his first name from a list of ten. When he started with the Byrds, he went by Jim, a name he thought too plain. In 1965 he became involved with Subud, a…
- Ted KaczynskiTed Kaczynski wrote a letter to The New York Times in 1995 and attached a promise to it. If the Times or The Washington Post printed his essay in full, he would "desist from terrorism." The essay ran to roughly 35,000 words and carried the…
- Charlie RoseCharlie Rose, an American journalist born on the 5th of January 1942, hosted a talk show under his own name for 26 years, from 1991 to 2017. He was its executive producer as well as its host, and the program became known for its stature…
- Oscar ZárateOscar Zárate, once an advertising man, drew a graphic novel about an ad man hunted by a sadistic child.
- Tommy RoeTommy Roe's song "Sheila" got its name because his Aunt Sheila was visiting. It began as a poem for Freda.
- Patrick OlivellePatrick Olivelle spent his doctorate on a text about people who give up the world. His Ph.D. came in 1974.
- EusébioPortugal trailed North Korea 0-3, then Eusébio scored four goals. Portugal won that 1966 World Cup quarter-final 5-3.
- Richard D. WolffRichard D. Wolff's father was a lawyer in Cologne, but his degree was worthless in America.
- Gregory NagyA Harvard classics course drew 27,000 registered students online.
- Valeri PolyakovValeri Polyakov refused a chair after 437 days in space and walked instead. It was a message about Mars.
- Jann HaworthJann Haworth hand-tinted life-size cut-outs for the Sgt. Pepper album cover. She shared a 1968 Grammy for it.