Curated playlist
1961 births
- Barack ObamaObama rejected a plan to bomb a compound in Pakistan and sent Navy SEALs instead. The 2011 raid killed Osama bin Laden.
- Ghislaine MaxwellOn the 29th of December 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking of a minor. Maxwell, a British former socialite, had moved for decades through the social circles of London and Manhattan. Her friends…
- Peter JacksonPeter Jackson saw King Kong at nine, and a few years later tried to remake it with stop-motion models he built himself.
- David A. BellHistorian David A. Bell argues nationalism was built, not natural. He traces it in France from 1680 to 1800.
- Diana, Princess of WalesAn estimated 2.5 billion people watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The broadcast reached more than 200 countries. In the United Kingdom the audience peaked at 32.1 million, one of the highest figures ever recorded there. In…
- Isiah ThomasIsiah Thomas scored 25 points in one Finals quarter on a badly sprained ankle. It was a 1988 NBA Finals record.
- Cary StaynerCary Stayner is an American serial killer whose crimes began to surface in March 1999, when police near Yosemite National Park received an anonymous note. It held a hand-drawn map, and across the top someone had written, "We had fun with…
- Julia GillardJulia Gillard became Australia's prime minister six weeks after joking it was unlikely.
- James GandolfiniJames Gandolfini once stopped in the middle of an audition and walked out. David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, told the story to The Guardian in a 2013 interview. Gandolfini felt that he "didn't prepare right." Later that night he…
- George ClooneyIn 1977, a teenage George Clooney tried out for the Cincinnati Reds and did not make it past the first round of player cuts. No contract was offered. Clooney, an American actor and filmmaker, would go on to collect two Academy Awards, a…
- Eric Allin CornellIn 1995, Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman made the first Bose-Einstein condensate. It is a new state of matter.
- Eddie MurphyEddie Murphy opened Saturday Night Live on the 11th of December 1982 with a boast: "Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show!" The host booked for that Christmas episode, Nick Nolte, had become too ill to appear. Murphy stepped in.…
- Marco Pierre WhiteMarco Pierre White, an English chef and restaurateur, moved to London in 1981. By his own telling, he arrived with "£7.36, a box of books, and a bag of clothes". That was the entire stake of a young man who would later be dubbed "the first…
- Julia Louis-DreyfusElaine Benes on Seinfeld was not part of the original show. NBC executives found the pilot too male-centric.
- EnyaThe Fugees first sampled Enya's "Boadicea" without permission. She took legal action and got about 3 million dollars.
- Tetsuo HaraFist of the North Star's artist and writer rarely met in person. An editor carried ideas between them.
- Howard LutnickHoward Lutnick was taking his young son to kindergarten on the morning of the 11th of September 2001. That errand kept him out of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where his firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had its headquarters. His…
- Michael J. FoxMichael J. Fox once worked two months of days that began with rehearsals at 10 a.m. and ended with filming at 2:30 the next morning. Those were the hours of 1985. By day he rehearsed the sitcom Family Ties. By night he rushed to the set of…
- Yevgeny PrigozhinYevgeny Prigozhin died on the 23rd of August 2023, when a business jet crashed in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow. All ten people aboard were killed. The date fell exactly two months after Prigozhin had turned on Russia's military leadership…
- Yuri MilnerIn 2009, Yuri Milner paid $200 million for a 1.96% stake in Facebook. The deal came with no board seat.
- Richard FoltzRichard Foltz argues Iranian peoples, mainly Sogdians, drove Silk Road trade.
- Lothar MatthäusIn the 1986 World Cup final, Lothar Matthäus was assigned to mark Diego Maradona personally.