Curated playlist
1973 deaths
- J. R. R. TolkienOn his 21st birthday, Tolkien proposed by letter to a woman who was already engaged.
- Pablo PicassoA German officer in occupied Paris asked Picasso if he painted Guernica. "No," Picasso replied. "You did."
- Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson took the presidential oath from a woman, a first for any American president.
- Bruce LeeBruce Lee appeared in his first film as a baby. By 18, he had been in 20 films in Hong Kong.
- Dean CorllDean Corll was the man whose death a frightened caller reported to the Pasadena Police Department at 8:24 on the morning of the 8th of August 1973. The operator who answered was named Velma Lines. The caller was a teenager, and he blurted…
- Ōten ShimokawaŌten Shimokawa drew on film with ink and rubbed figures away with his fingers.
- W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
- Geertruida de Haas-LorentzIn 1925, Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz predicted the London penetration depth in superconductors.
- David Ben-GurionDavid Ben-Gurion agreed to the Irgun's plan to bomb the King David Hotel in 1946. Ninety-one people died.
- Ludwig von MisesNazi troops raided Ludwig von Mises's Vienna apartment and took his papers. He was already in Geneva.
- Hans Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein's son Hans Albert became a river engineer, not a physicist. He studied how rivers carry sediment.
- Frank CostelloFrank Costello, an Italian-American crime boss, tried to keep his face off television during the Senate's organized crime hearings. The attempt backfired. Cameras settled on his hands instead, and his fidgeting and evasive answers played…
- Jean-Pierre MelvilleAs the story goes, Jean-Pierre Melville died at dinner after writing 200 shots of a new film that morning.
- İsmet İnönüİsmet İnönü said no to Winston Churchill inside a railroad car in 1943. Churchill wanted Turkey to join the Allies.
- Ole ColbjørnsenOle Colbjørnsen's 1933 pamphlet gave Norway's Labour Party its slogan, "the whole people at work."
- Károly KerényiKároly Kerényi handed back his passport in 1944 and became a stateless refugee.
- Gabriel MarcelGabriel Marcel wrote at least thirty plays, but readers kept turning to his philosophy.
- Oskar HaleckiHistorian Oskar Halecki argued that Eastern Europe was no less European than Western Europe.
- Alan WattsAlan Watts resigned as an Episcopal priest in August 1950. He later became a leading voice of Zen in America.