Curated playlist
2018 deaths
- George H. W. BushAfter being shot down in 1944, George H. W. Bush asked why he alone had been spared. Both of his crewmates died.
- Aretha FranklinOtis Redding said Aretha Franklin took his song "Respect" away from him. Her version hit number one in 1967.
- Atal Bihari VajpayeeAtal Bihari Vajpayee ordered nuclear tests, then rode a bus to Lahore.
- Joris BorghoutsAround 2000, budget cuts threatened Leiden University's Egyptology department. Its head, Joris Borghouts, pushed back.
- Stan LeeStan Lee used a pen name because comic books embarrassed him. He wanted his real name saved for a novel he never wrote.
- John Young (astronaut)John Young walked on the Moon and later commanded the first Space Shuttle mission. He is the only person to do both.
- Allison ShearmurAllison Shearmur broke into Hollywood by winning a campus contest.
- AviciiAvicii, the stage name of the Swedish producer Tim Bergling, is best known for one song's remarkable run. His track Wake Me Up held the title of most-streamed song on Spotify for 506 days, until Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud overtook it…
- John Lynch (historian)Historian John Lynch went from British Army service to decades studying Spanish America's revolutions.
- Steve DitkoSteve Ditko covered Spider-Man's face because it looked too young. He reasoned a full mask would add mystery.
- Alan BeanAlan Bean walked on the Moon, then quit NASA to paint it. He pressed Moon dust from his suit patches into canvases.
- Geoff EmerickGeoff Emerick ran John Lennon's voice through a spinning organ speaker for "Tomorrow Never Knows".
- Kofi AnnanKofi Annan became the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations only after France vetoed him four times and then finally chose to abstain. He was also the first holder of that office to be chosen from the organisation's own staff.…
- Stephen HawkingDoctors gave Stephen Hawking two years to live at age 21, but he died at 76.
- Gary KurtzStar Wars producer Gary Kurtz filmed combat in Vietnam as a Quaker who refused to carry a sidearm.
- Dolores O'RiordanDolores O'Riordan was twelve years old on her first day at Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick. She stood in front of her new classmates and announced, "My name is Dolores O'Riordan and I'm going to be a rock star". Then she stood on her…
- XXXTentacionXXXTentacion, born Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, was shot dead on the 18th of June 2018 near a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was 20 years old. At the time, he was a rising and deeply polarizing figure in hip-hop.…
- Isao TakahataIsao Takahata survived an air raid at age nine, then made Grave of the Fireflies.
- Efraín Ríos MonttEfraín Ríos Montt was sentenced to 80 years for genocide, and the ruling collapsed within days.
- Lill-BabsIn 1963, the Beatles asked Swedish singer Lill-Babs for her autograph. They were then unknown outside Britain.
- Mac MillerBlue Slide Park, an album released on the 8th of November 2011, sold 144,000 copies in its first week and landed at the top of the US Billboard 200. No debut album distributed outside the major label system had done that since Tha Dogg…
- Whitey BulgerOn the 22nd of June 2011, agents in Santa Monica, California, used a ruse to lure an 81-year-old man out of his apartment. They arrested him without incident. He was James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger Jr., who had once led the Winter Hill Gang,…
- Hart family murdersThe Hart family murders, a murder-suicide in 2018, took the lives of two women and their six adopted children. Years before, one of those children became known across the country through a single photograph. In 2014, at a protest in…