Curated playlist
2020 deaths
- Kobe BryantKobe Bryant scored 81 points against Toronto in 2006, the second-highest NBA game total ever.
- Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas insisted on giving blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo an on-screen credit for Spartacus.
- Little RichardLittle Richard walked away from rock and roll to study theology. A fireball over Sydney in 1957 shook him.
- Alfred WordenIn 1971, Alfred Worden orbited the Moon alone, farther from any other person than anyone before.
- Katherine JohnsonKatherine Johnson was the mathematician an astronaut asked for by name. NASA was using electronic computers for the first time to calculate John Glenn's orbit of the Earth. Officials turned to Johnson to verify the machine's numbers,…
- Allen Lawrence PopeAllen Lawrence Pope was carrying about 30 incriminating documents when Indonesian forces took him prisoner in May 1958. One of them was his own flight log. The papers turned a covert operation into a diplomatic crisis, and they deepened…
- Astrid KirchherrAstrid Kirchherr once summed up the night that changed her life in a single image: "It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing... My whole life changed in a couple of minutes." Kirchherr was a German…
- David SternDavid Stern began shipping VHS tapes of NBA games to Chinese state television in 1987.
- Qasem SoleimaniAfter a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, the body of Qasem Soleimani was identified by a ring he wore on his finger. It was a small, quiet detail for an Iranian military officer whose name had been spoken with fear, awe and…
- Christopher TolkienChristopher Tolkien admitted he had to invent some passages in his father's book The Silmarillion.
- Diego MaradonaDiego Maradona punched in one World Cup goal, then dribbled past five English players for another.
- Paolo RossiPaolo Rossi won the 1982 World Cup after a two-year ban for a betting scandal. The press had written him off.
- Sean ConnerySir Sean Connery was the first actor to play James Bond in the cinema, and the role followed him for the rest of his life. In 2009, he described a taxi ride during the Edinburgh Film Festival. The driver was amazed that Connery could name…
- Peter SutcliffePeter William Sutcliffe was questioned by police nine times during a five-year hunt for the killer the press called the Yorkshire Ripper, and each time he was let go. He was a heavy goods vehicle driver from Bradford, in the north of…
- MF DoomMF Doom died on October 31, 2020, but no one outside his family knew for two months. His wife then announced it.
- Barbara RemingtonTolkien said Barbara Remington's cover showed what looked like pumpkins in a tree.
- Tim SeverinTim Severin built a boat from ox hides to test a medieval legend. In 1976 he sailed it from Ireland toward Newfoundland.
- George SteinerGeorge Steiner was born Francis George Steiner on the 23rd of April 1929. He was a literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator, and he is described as both French and American. Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature…
- Samuel LittleSamuel Little, born Samuel McDowell, told investigators that he had committed 93 murders between 1970 and 2005. Courts convicted him of eight. The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program has confirmed his involvement in at least 60 of…