Curated playlist
2005 deaths
- Johnny CarsonUri Geller failed on Johnny Carson's show, and it made him famous. Carson had asked James Randi for help.
- Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II visited the man who shot him in 1981 and called him a brother.
- Saul BellowSaul Bellow learned he had entered the U.S. illegally as a child when he tried to enlist. He became a citizen in 1941.
- Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson's Gonzo style began as a Kentucky Derby deadline scramble. He mailed pages ripped from his notebook.
- Charles David KeelingA chemist who nearly became a concert pianist created the Keeling Curve, a graph of rising carbon dioxide.
- Gopal GodseGopal Godse walked free in 1964 after 16 years in prison for plotting to kill Gandhi. His brother Nathuram was hanged.
- Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
- Yin ShunYin Shun accepted a rejected young nun as a disciple within the hour. She became Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi.
- Stanley SadieStanley Sadie grew a nine-volume music dictionary into twenty volumes. The 1980 result needed a new name: The New Grove.
- Rosemary KennedyRosemary Kennedy once sat down and copied out, slowly and laboriously, a reply that someone else had written in her name. The Boston Globe had asked to interview her. Her father's assistant composed the answer instead. In it, she was made…
- Al AronowitzJournalist Al Aronowitz introduced Bob Dylan to the Beatles in a New York City hotel room on August 28, 1964.
- Rosa ParksRosa Parks was forty-two years old on the evening she stayed in her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, and she spent decades insisting that weariness had nothing to do with it. She rejected the picture of herself as old or physically worn…
- Ricky RodriguezRicky Rodriguez sat down in Tucson, Arizona, on the 7th of January 2005 and recorded a videotape. He spoke about revenge. He said that if he never found the person he was hunting, someone else would "pick up the torch". Within two days,…
- Shelby FooteShelby Foote wrote every page by hand with a nib pen, then typed up a clean copy. He thought of himself first as a novelist. Yet he is remembered for a three-volume history of the American Civil War. He expected that history to take nine…
- George F. KennanGeorge Kennan spent decades disowning the Cold War policy he made famous. Containment, he said, was not military.
- George MikanThe NBA widened its foul lane to slow down one player, George Mikan. The rule was formally dubbed "The Mikan Rule."
- Karl SteinbuchKarl Steinbuch helped invent the German word for computer science. He later became a bestselling right-wing author.
- Byron PreissIn 1982, Byron Preiss hid twelve boxes in North American parks, each holding a key for a $1,000 jewel.
- Lucien LaurentLucien Laurent, a Peugeot factory worker, scored the first goal in World Cup history.
- Stanley WilliamsStanley Tookie Williams III was seventeen when a juvenile review board asked what he planned to do once he was released. By his own account, he replied with "being the leader of the biggest gang in the world." He was a teenager with a…