Curated playlist
20th-century Methodists
- Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela wore a Springbok shirt to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. He gave the trophy to an Afrikaner captain.
- George W. BushGeorge W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, was standing at a press conference in Baghdad on the 14th of December 2008 when an Iraqi journalist named Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at him. Bush ducked, and neither…
- William McKinleyWilliam McKinley won the presidency in 1896 campaigning from his front porch. Crowds came by train to Canton, Ohio.
- Matthew McConaugheyMatthew McConaughey, the American actor, won the part that launched his career by walking up to a stranger in a hotel bar. At the time he was a film student at the University of Texas in Austin. He had gone out with his girlfriend to the…
- George LucasGeorge Lucas turned down a higher directing fee for Star Wars. He asked for toy and merchandise rights instead.
- Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher kept a portrait of her chemistry tutor on the wall at 10 Downing Street.
- James ComeyJames Comey was addressing agents at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office on the 9th of May 2017. Television news reports flashed word that President Donald Trump had fired him. He was the seventh director in the bureau's history, and fewer…
- Jennifer GarnerIn August 2018, Jennifer Garner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Variety praised her "radiant likability" and said she was second only to Tom Hanks. Garner is an American actress, and that honor capped a career with an…
- Dick CheneyDick Cheney, born Richard Bruce Cheney, held the full powers of the American presidency on the morning of the 29th of June 2002. From 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m., he served as acting president under the 25th Amendment while George W. Bush…
- Kenneth LayKenneth Lay, the founder of Enron, was pronounced dead at 3:11 in the morning at Aspen Valley Hospital in Colorado. Officers from the Pitkin County Sheriff's Department had been called to his house in Snowmass at 1:41 that same morning. It…
- Larry McDonaldCongressman Larry McDonald died on a plane that three colleagues were meant to share.
- Harriet TubmanHarriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross, never forgot the moment she first felt free. Years later she described it this way: "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory…