Curated playlist
American Presbyterians
- Mark TwainMark Twain predicted he would die with Halley's Comet, and he did. He died the day after it passed closest to the Sun.
- Donald TrumpDonald Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted terms by age eight.
- James StewartJames Stewart gave his Oscar to his father for the shop window.
- Benjamin HarrisonBenjamin Harrison beat Grover Cleveland, then lost the White House back to him.
- Dwight D. EisenhowerEisenhower wrote a note taking all blame if D-Day failed. He drafted it on the eve of the June 1944 landings.
- Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson ordered his own supporters to vote against his League of Nations treaty.
- Ed HarrisOn the 21st of March 1999, at the 71st Academy Awards, the actor Ed Harris remained in his seat and did not applaud. The honoree was the director Elia Kazan, who was receiving an Academy Honorary Award. Harris and his wife, the actress Amy…
- Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
- John Foster DullesJohn Foster Dulles ran U.S. foreign policy while his brother Allen ran the CIA.
- Rand PaulRand Paul began speaking on the floor of the United States Senate on the 6th of March 2013, and he did not stop for 12 hours and 52 minutes. The occasion was the nomination of John O. Brennan to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Paul…
- David LettermanDavid Letterman got fired from campus radio for treating classical music irreverently.
- Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
- George B. McClellanGeneral McClellan wrote that he might have made himself Dictator if he had wanted to.
- Fred RogersFred Rogers weighed 143 pounds for most of his adult life, and he treated the number as a private message. In a 1998 Esquire profile, he told the writer Tom Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four…
- Mark David ChapmanMark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon, was once a beloved summer camp counselor nicknamed "Nemo."
- John C. BreckinridgeVice President John C. Breckinridge announced Lincoln's 1860 win, a race he had lost. The Senate later expelled him.