Curated playlist
1971 deaths
- Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong fired a blank from his stepfather's gun and spent the night in juvenile court.
- Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev spent four hours in 1956 tearing down Stalin's reputation. He had helped carry out Stalin's purges.
- Igor StravinskyIgor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its 1913 Paris premiere.
- Jim MorrisonOn live TV in 1967, Jim Morrison sang a lyric censors had told him to change. Ed Sullivan then banned the Doors.
- Gene VincentGene Vincent's hit "Be-Bop-a-Lula" was supposed to be the B-side. Radio stations played it over the A-side.
- Jacobo ÁrbenzGuatemala's president Jacobo Árbenz gave up 1,700 acres of his own land under his land reform.
- Mátyás RákosiHungary's Communist ruler Mátyás Rákosi was freed from prison in 1940 in exchange for old battle flags.
- Hermann HothHermann Hoth was sentenced to 15 years for war crimes but walked free on parole in 1954.
- Allan NevinsIn 1948, historian Allan Nevins started the first institutionalized oral history program in the United States.
- Philo FarnsworthPhilo Farnsworth, inventor of electronic television, won a carton of cigarettes on a 1957 quiz show.
- Frank RosenblattA 1969 book led many to wrongly think Rosenblatt's learning machines were fatally limited.
- Hans KohnHans Kohn resigned from a Zionist fundraising body in 1929 with a letter titled "Judaism is Not Zionism."