Curated playlist
2008 deaths
- Maharishi Mahesh YogiMaharishi Mahesh Yogi arrived in Hawaii in 1959 with no money and nothing to carry.
- John Archibald WheelerJohn Archibald Wheeler spent decades calling a dying star a "gravitationally completely collapsed object."
- SuhartoSuharto ruled Indonesia for 31 years, longer than any other president. He grew up poor, passed between relatives.
- Robert SeamansRobert Channing Seamans Jr. sat down for his last television interview in the autumn of 2007, speaking about the guidance and navigation system that helped carry Apollo astronauts to the Moon. He did not see it aired. The episode of the…
- Paul NewmanAt the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona, Paul Newman was 70 years and eight days old, and his team won its class. That made him the oldest driver to date on a winning team in a major sanctioned race. Newman was best known as a film star, and he…
- Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke never patented his satellite idea. He called a patent "a licence to be sued."
- Alan T. NolanAlan T. Nolan spent his life as both a Civil War historian and an Indiana attorney. He wrote The Iron Brigade in 1961.
- Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn watched Moscow's victory fireworks from a prison cell. He was a decorated Red Army captain.
- Neil AspinallNeil Aspinall quit accounting to drive the Beatles around in an old van. He paid £80 for it in 1961.
- Dražan JerkovićDražan Jerković scored twice as Yugoslavia beat France 5-4 in the 1960 European Championship semifinal.
- Heath LedgerHeath Ledger made twenty films in a career that ended while he was still a young man. His last great performance won him an Academy Award that he never had the chance to hold. How did a schoolboy from Australia become an actor whom many…
- Bo DiddleyBo Diddley ignored his orders on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955. Asked for "Sixteen Tons", he played his own hit.
- Saeko HimuroMost people outside Japan know Saeko Himuro through one Studio Ghibli film. I Can Hear the Sea came out in 1993.
- Michael CrichtonMichael Crichton once submitted a George Orwell essay as his own and got a B-minus.
- Peter BranscombePeter Branscombe first saw Vienna as a soldier, not a scholar. It shaped his next five decades of work.
- Joseph WeizenbaumJoseph Weizenbaum's secretary asked him to leave so she could keep chatting with his program. She knew it was a machine.
- Oliver SelfridgeIn 1959, Oliver Selfridge described software "demons" that shout answers, and the loudest wins.
- John List (murderer)John Emil List left behind a mansion in Westfield, New Jersey, that blazed with light in the autumn of 1971. Every room was lit, day and night, and yet nobody seemed to be living there. Neighbors waited and watched. Then the light bulbs…
- Gary GygaxGary Gygax grew up hearing Wrigley Field crowds from his bedroom window. He later helped create Dungeons and Dragons.
- Pauline BaynesPauline Baynes drew all seven Narnia books for a flat £100 each. She was too unworldly to negotiate royalties.