Curated playlist
American Roman Catholics
- Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
- Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese's love of movies began because asthma kept him out of games.
- Kobe BryantKobe Bryant scored 81 points against Toronto in 2006, the second-highest NBA game total ever.
- Nicole KidmanNicole Kidman was born on the 20th of June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani, which means heavenly star. The inspiration for the name was a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo. Since…
- Jack KerouacJack Kerouac typed On the Road on a 120-foot roll of taped tracing paper. He finished the final draft in 20 days.
- John WayneJohn Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison and got his new name from a dog.
- Martin SheenMartin Sheen was born Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez. In a 2009 speech at Oxford University, he said he had been arrested 66 times. The human rights activist Craig Kielburger gave that tally a memorable comparison. He said Sheen had "a rap…
- AaliyahAaliyah signed her first record deal at twelve. By 22 she had three albums and two films behind her.
- John Wayne GacyOn the 21st of December 1978, an evidence technician named Daniel Genty crawled into a space measuring 28 by 38 feet beneath a ranch-style house outside Chicago. He worked his way to the southwest corner and began to dig. Within minutes he…
- Klay ThompsonKlay Thompson scored 37 points in one quarter against the Kings in 2015, an NBA record.
- Lamar Hunt Jr.Lamar Hunt Jr. once played second flute in the Kansas City Symphony. He now owns the Kansas City Mavericks hockey team.
- Melania TrumpMelania Trump holds a set of firsts that no earlier first lady of the United States shares. She is the first naturalized citizen to hold the title. She is also the first first lady whose native language is not English. Other names mark…
- Gwen StefaniGwen Stefani had a hit in 2005 that changed how Americans bought music. Her single “Hollaback Girl” rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became the first song downloaded one million times in the United States. The woman…
- John StocktonJazz fans greeted John Stockton's 1984 draft pick with stunned silence.
- Simone BilesA day-care field trip first brought six-year-old Simone Biles into a gymnastics gym. She now has 11 Olympic medals.
- Walter Bedell SmithWalter Bedell Smith signed Italy's armistice under an olive tree in Sicily. It was September 3, 1943.
- Adolphe MenjouAdolphe Menjou, an engineer from Pittsburgh, became Hollywood's ideal of Parisian elegance.
- Shia LaBeoufShia LaBeouf, the American actor and filmmaker born in 1986, walked the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival on the 9th of February 2014 in a tuxedo with a brown paper bag over his head. Across the bag were written the words "I am not…