Curated playlist

1960 births

Jean-Claude Van DammeJean-Claude Van Damme once slept in cars and sometimes stole food while trying to break into Hollywood.
Keef CowboyKeef Cowboy teased a friend who joined the Army by singing hip, hop, hip, hop. He is credited with the term hip hop.
Dee NastyDee Nasty made France's first hip hop record, released in 1984. It was called "Panam City Rappin."
Andrew Mountbatten-WindsorAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew and Duke of York, was arrested on the morning of the 19th of February 2026. It was his 66th birthday. Officers detained him on the Sandringham estate on suspicion of misconduct in public…
Christophe GansChristophe Gans once shot an American horror segment without a work permit. He later made Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Neil GaimanNeil Gaiman is the first author to win both the Carnegie Medal and the Newbery Medal for the same book.
James ComeyJames Comey was addressing agents at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office on the 9th of May 2017. Television news reports flashed word that President Donald Trump had fired him. He was the seventh director in the bureau's history, and fewer…
Kenneth BranaghKenneth Branagh won an Oscar for a film about the Belfast he fled at age nine. He won Best Original Screenplay in 2022.
Odd Arne WestadOdd Arne Westad argues the Cold War was not mainly a European story. His work made "global Cold War" a standard term.
Jérôme ValckeJérôme Valcke was released by FIFA in 2006, then made its Secretary General seven months later.
Mehdi TajCanada turned away Mehdi Taj, Iran's football boss, in April 2026. He was headed to the FIFA Congress in Vancouver.
BonoBono, the lead singer of U2, took his name from the sign of a hearing aid shop in Dublin. The shop was called Bonavox, and it stood just off O'Connell Street, the city's principal thoroughfare. The word comes from the Latin for good voice.…
Sean PennIn Kyiv in November 2022, Sean Penn handed an Oscar statuette to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "This is for you. It's just a symbolic silly thing...When you win, bring it back to Malibu." That was the whole speech. Penn is an…
Stanley TucciStanley Tucci Jr. gave a college classmate a nickname that the man has carried ever since. The classmate was Irving Rhames, and the nickname was Ving. Tucci handed it over while the two of them studied acting together at a state university…
James SpaderJames Spader was once told TV audiences would never welcome him into their homes. He then won three straight Emmys.
Hideaki AnnoHideaki Anno wrote his own experiences of depression into the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Pius MalekandathilPius Malekandathil is a Syro-Malabar Church priest and a historian of medieval India.
Tushar GandhiTushar Gandhi agreed to let a credit card ad use his great-grandfather's image. Outcry made him cancel it.
John Allen MuhammadJohn Allen Muhammad was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. on the 10th of November 2009. The place was the Greensville Correctional Center, near Jarratt, Virginia. Seven years earlier, in 2002, shootings attributed to him and a young partner…
Charles CullenCharles Cullen told detectives that he had killed as many as 40 patients, and that figure marks only the beginning of the uncertainty around him. Investigators have confirmed at least 29 of those deaths. Researchers who studied his career…
Jeffrey DahmerJeffrey Dahmer killed seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He became known as the Milwaukee Cannibal and the Milwaukee Monster. On the night of the 22nd of July 1991, police officers in a Milwaukee apartment pinned him to the…
Keith RaniereKeith Raniere was addressed by his followers as Vanguard, and for twenty years he led a company in Albany, New York, called NXIVM. The company sold personal development seminars. From 1998 to 2018 it drew 700 members at its height, among…
Yann LeCunYann LeCun spent a postdoc year under Geoffrey Hinton, then shared a Turing Award with him.
Diego MaradonaDiego Maradona punched in one World Cup goal, then dribbled past five English players for another.
Gary LinekerGary Lineker played 654 competitive games and never got a yellow or red card.
Richard RamirezRichard Ramirez was an American burglar, sex offender and serial killer who terrorized Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. A California judge, upholding nineteen death sentences against him, said his deeds showed "cruelty,…
Franco BaresiInter Milan turned Franco Baresi away and signed his older brother instead. He went to AC Milan and became a legend.
Michael HutchenceMichael Hutchence, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band INXS, was 37 years old when he died in a Sydney hotel room. The band was due to open its 20th anniversary tour in Sydney on the 23rd of November 1997. With…
Hirohiko ArakiHirohiko Araki is a Japanese manga artist, and by 2022 his best-known series had more than 120 million copies in circulation. That makes JoJo's Bizarre Adventure one of the best-selling manga in history. The story has now been serialized…
Aaron AllstonAaron Allston wrote Dungeons and Dragons game books, then Star Wars novels. He joined the X-Wing novels in 1997.
David MiscavigeDavid Miscavige was born on the 30th of April 1960, and he now leads the Church of Scientology. Inside the organization he answers to several names. Members call him “DM,” “COB,” and “captain of the Sea Org.” His formal title is chairman…
Douglas BrinkleyHistorian Douglas Brinkley taught a college course on a bus he named the Majic Bus.
Daryl HannahDaryl Hannah, born in Chicago on the 3rd of December 1960, once chained herself to a walnut tree and stayed there for three weeks. The tree stood on a farm in South Central Los Angeles. Most audiences knew her from the screen instead. She…
Reza PahlaviReza Pahlavi declared himself king of Iran on the 31st of October 1980, his twentieth birthday, taking the title Reza Shah II from exile. The monarchy he claimed had been abolished the year before. Almost at once, John Trattner, a…
Mario BataliMario Batali was roommates at Rutgers University with the actor James Gandolfini, years before either man was famous. Batali, born in 1960, became an American chef, writer and restaurateur whose name was once close to shorthand for Italian…
David HeadleyJudge Harry Leinenweber of the federal court in Chicago told David Headley that he deserved to be executed. Then he sentenced him to 35 years in prison. Headley, born Dawood Sayed Gilani, was a Pakistani-American who gathered the…