Curated playlist
1962 deaths
- Marilyn MonroeAn unimpressed studio head signed Marilyn Monroe specifically to keep her away from a rival studio.
- William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner never told his daughter he had won the Nobel Prize. She heard it when the principal called her in.
- Julio Rey PastorJulio Rey Pastor's report from Germany led to Spain's first math research institute outside a university.
- Hermann HesseHermann Hesse's biggest audience came after he died. His novels became U.S. paperback bestsellers by the mid-1960s.
- Stuart SutcliffeStuart Sutcliffe left the Beatles in 1961 to study painting in Hamburg. He died the next spring, aged 21.
- Georges BatailleGeorges Bataille's secret society Acéphale never found an executioner. Every member had agreed to be the victim.
- Lucky LucianoLucky Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania, was arrested 25 times between 1916 and 1936 and spent no time in prison. The charges ranged from assault and illegal gambling to blackmail and robbery. Then a trial over a prostitution racket ended…
- Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann sat behind bulletproof glass in a Jerusalem auditorium called Beit Ha'am on the 11th of April 1961. The glass was there to protect him from any attempt on his life. The building had been modified so that journalists could…
- Niels BohrNiels Bohr passed out in the bomb bay of a British plane over Norway. His flying helmet was too small for him to wear.
- Jakob LaubPhysicist Jakob Laub found Einstein still working at a patent office in 1908. He called it a "stair joke of history."
- Natalia GoncharovaNatalia Goncharova walked Moscow's streets with painted cheeks, handing out a manifesto.
- Richard AldingtonRichard Aldington replaced banned words in his war novel with asterisks so readers could see the censoring.