Curated playlist
1953 deaths
- Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin once trained to be a Russian Orthodox priest. He later led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death.
- Dylan ThomasDylan Thomas left his own 39th birthday party after an hour, too ill to stay. Within two weeks the Welsh poet was dead.
- Eugene O'NeillPlaywright Eugene O'Neill was born in a hotel room and died in one. His last words were about that coincidence.
- Hank WilliamsHank Williams was already dead in a car's back seat when the driver noticed. He was 29.
- Mary of TeckMary of Teck was born on the 26th of May 1867 at Kensington Palace in London, in the very room where Queen Victoria had been born 48 years and two days earlier. Victoria came to see the baby and wrote that she was "a very fine one, with…
- Carol II of RomaniaCarol II of Romania fled in 1940 as gunmen fired on his train. It carried 30 truckloads of his fortune.
- Lavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy Beria walked out on Stalin's paralyzed body and told everyone not to panic. No doctor came for twelve hours.
- Sulaiman NadviSulaiman Nadvi finished a life of the Prophet that his teacher left unfinished at death.
- Sergei ProkofievComposer Sergei Prokofiev died the same day as Joseph Stalin, and his coffin went through back streets.
- Edwin HubbleEdwin Hubble studied law at Oxford because of a promise to his dying father. He still became an astronomer.
- Jim ThorpeSomeone stole Jim Thorpe's shoes before the 1912 Olympic decathlon, and he won gold in mismatched replacements.
- Ivan BuninExiled in France, Ivan Bunin became the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.