Curated category
2018 deaths
- George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush carried a question with him for most of his adult life. Shot down over the Pacific in 1944, watching both crewmates die while he…
- Aretha FranklinAretha Franklin heard Otis Redding's reaction to her own version of his song "Respect": "That little girl done took my song away from me." She had added a…
- Atal Bihari VajpayeeAtal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1939, at the age of 12, as a volunteer in Gwalior. Decades later, that same boy would be sworn…
- Joris BorghoutsJoris Frans Borghouts entered the world on the 17th of June 1939 in Ginneken. His academic path led him to Leiden University where he earned his doctorate in…
- Stan LeeStan Lee signed off his monthly column with a single word: "Excelsior!" It is also the New York state motto, which suited a man born Stanley Martin Lieber on…
- John Young (astronaut)John Watts Young flew in space six times, walked on the Moon, and commanded the first Space Shuttle mission. No other astronaut in history flew in four…
- Allison ShearmurAllison Ivy Brecker entered the world on the 23rd of October 1963 as one of four quadruplets born to Martin and Rhoda Brecker.
- John Lynch (historian)John Lynch was born on the 11th of January 1927 in Boldon, a small town in County Durham, in the north of England. By the time he died on the 4th of April…
- Steve DitkoSteve Ditko drew the first costume for Spider-Man because he worried the character's face looked too young. Covering it entirely, he reasoned, would add…
- Alan BeanAlan LaVern Bean was born on the 15th of March, 1932, in Wheeler, Texas, a small town in the northeastern corner of the Texas Panhandle.
- Geoff EmerickGeoff Emerick walked into EMI Studios on the 4th of September 1962 for only his second day of work. He was sixteen years old.
- Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking spent his final years communicating at roughly one word per minute, twitching a single cheek muscle to select letters from a screen.
- Gary KurtzGary Kurtz walked onto the set of a low-budget Western in 1965 with no idea he would one day help shape two of the most profitable films ever made.
- Isao TakahataIsao Takahata survived a United States air raid on Okayama City on the 29th of June, 1945. He was nine years old, separated from his parents for two days…
- Efraín Ríos MonttEfraín Ríos Montt died of a heart attack at his home in Guatemala City on the 1st of April 2018, at the age of 91, without ever completing a criminal trial.
- Lill-BabsLill-Babs was born Barbro Margareta Svensson on the 9th of March 1938, in Järvsö, a town 290 kilometres north of Stockholm.