Curated playlist
2000 deaths
- Jocko HendersonRadio host Jocko Henderson sold his song publishing rights rather than risk the fate of Alan Freed.
- Joseph Deighton Gibson Jr.Joseph Gibson helped turn a money-losing Atlanta station into America's first Black-owned radio station.
- John GielgudJohn Gielgud was arrested months after being knighted. Backstage in Liverpool, he feared he could not face an audience.
- Pierre TrudeauPierre Trudeau won the Liberal leadership after barely three years in the party.
- Bruno KoschmiderBruno Koschmider was a Hamburg entrepreneur who spent three hours of a night in 1960 reporting a fire that did almost no damage. Behind that complaint stood three young men from Liverpool. He was born in 1926 in the Free City of Danzig,…
- Robert R. GilruthWhen Kennedy promised a Moon landing, Robert Gilruth was aghast.
- Alec GuinnessAlec Guinness privately called Star Wars "fairy-tale rubbish" in letters to friends.
- Kray twinsThe Kray twins were convicted of murder in 1969, yet crowds of thousands lined up to applaud when Reggie Kray was buried at Chingford Mount Cemetery in October 2000. Ronald and Reginald Kray were identical brothers from Haggerston in East…
- L. Sprague de CampL. Sprague de Camp turned the word extraterrestrial into a noun. He also coined E.T. in a 1939 magazine article.
- Rayner UnwinAt ten, Rayner Unwin read The Hobbit for one shilling and helped get it published.