Curated playlist
1952 births
- Cliff EisenCliff Eisen studies where Leopold Mozart's works end and his son Wolfgang's begin.
- Abdelbaset al-MegrahiA special court at Camp Zeist convicted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on the 31st of January 2001. Three Scottish judges found the Libyan guilty on 270 counts of murder for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which fell over Scotland on the 21st of…
- Harvey WeinsteinHarvey Weinstein was thanked by name in 34 Academy Award acceptance speeches. That is as many times as God was thanked, and only Steven Spielberg, with 43 mentions, was thanked more often. The tally comes from an analysis of speeches made…
- David Wootton (historian)David Wootton's 2006 book Bad Medicine traces doctors doing harm back to Hippocrates.
- Liam NeesonLiam Neeson, born William John Neeson, first saw great acting in a church he had no business being in. Ian Paisley, founder of the Democratic Unionist Party, led the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and the young Neeson sneaked into it.…
- Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin's grandfather cooked personal meals for both Lenin and Stalin. Putin later joined the KGB in 1975.
- Clive BarkerUnhappy with how others filmed his screenplays, Clive Barker directed Hellraiser himself. It opened in 1987.
- Shigeru MiyamotoDonkey Kong began as a way to use up unsold arcade machines.
- Kenji TeradaKenji Terada, a history graduate, wrote the first three Final Fantasy games. He was a freelance anime writer.
- George GervinGeorge Gervin won a 1978 NBA scoring title by seven-hundredths of a point. He scored 63 to edge David Thompson.
- David ByrneDavid Byrne was turned away from his middle school choir, which judged him "off-key and too withdrawn". That boy grew up to be an American musician, writer, visual artist and filmmaker. Over his career he has received an Academy Award, a…
- Hilary MantelHilary Mantel became the first woman to win the Booker Prize twice. Her winners were Wolf Hall and its sequel.
- Michael Hirst (writer)Michael Hirst wrote all 89 episodes of the History Channel drama Vikings. It was the channel's first serialized drama.
- Yoshitaka AmanoIn 1996, artist Yoshitaka Amano became the world's highest-earning artist.
- Walter IsaacsonWalter Isaacson interviewed Steve Jobs more than forty times over roughly two years.
- Donald S. Lopez Jr.A Buddhism scholar wrote a book explaining enlightenment through baseball. Donald S. Lopez Jr. published it in 2020.
- Rafael Caro QuinteroRafael Caro Quintero is a Mexican former drug lord whose capture the United States once valued at 20 million dollars, the highest reward on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He co-founded the Guadalajara Cartel in the late 1970s…
- Jeff GoldblumIn July 2018, a statue of Jeff Goldblum stood 25 feet tall beside London's Tower Bridge. It was a temporary installation, built to mark 25 years since the release of Jurassic Park. Goldblum, born Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum on the 22nd of…