Curated playlist
1970 deaths
- Jimi HendrixJimi Hendrix's first guitar was a one-string ukulele found in the garbage. He learned by ear to Elvis songs.
- Gonzague de ReynoldGonzague de Reynold wrote more than thirty books, yet his name has largely vanished from English-language memory.
- Sharda MehtaIn 1901, Sharda Mehta became one of the first two women with a university degree in what is now Gujarat.
- Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle tried five times to escape German prison camps in the First World War. He even posed as a nurse.
- Allen LaneAllen Lane sold the first Penguin paperbacks from a vending machine. He asked why a good book cost more than soap.
- Rudolf CarnapRudolf Carnap argued that most deep philosophical questions were meaningless.
- Édouard DaladierCheering Parisians greeted Édouard Daladier in 1938, and he privately called them fools.
- Lev KuleshovLev Kuleshov showed the same actor's face beside soup, a coffin and a woman. Audiences saw hunger, grief and desire.
- Janis JoplinIn the summer of 1962, the campus newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin printed a profile of a student named Janis Joplin. The issue was dated the 27th of July, and the headline read “She Dares to Be Different.” The writer noted…
- SukarnoYouth leaders took Sukarno from his house by force to make him declare independence.
- Max BornMax Born won his 1954 Nobel Prize for work he finished nearly three decades earlier.
- Yukio MishimaYukio Mishima shouted to soldiers from a Tokyo balcony in 1970, then killed himself.
- Arthur AdamovIn Arthur Adamov's play Le Professeur Taranne, every denial the accused man offers becomes proof of guilt.
- Adam RapackiPoland's foreign minister Adam Rapacki asked the United Nations in 1957 for a nuclear-free zone in Europe.
- Bertrand RussellAt 89, philosopher Bertrand Russell went to jail for an anti-nuclear protest. Asked to behave, he said, "No, I won't."
- C. V. RamanC. V. Raman, the Indian physicist, bought two steamship tickets to Stockholm in July 1930. One was for himself and one was for his wife. The Nobel Prize announcements were not due until November. Raman knew that the voyage to Sweden by sea…
- Vince LombardiVince Lombardi, the football coach, once dreamed of becoming a priest. He attended Mass every day of his adult life.