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Curated playlist

Commanders of the Legion of Honour

  • Pierre-Auguste RenoirPainter Renoir was once mistaken for a spy and nearly thrown into the Seine. A man he had once protected stepped in.
  • Claude François de MaletFor several hours in 1812, Paris believed Claude François de Malet's lie that Napoleon was dead.
  • Clint EastwoodPresident Reagan quoted Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day" to Congress.
  • Bill GatesBill Gates and Paul Allen wrote software for a computer they did not have. Their Altair demo worked the first time.
  • Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl WavellArchibald Wavell beat Italy's army in Libya, then Winston Churchill replaced him in June 1941.
  • Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on Holy Saturday, the 16th of April 1927, and was baptised the same day. For years as a cardinal, he said what he wanted most was a quiet life in his house in Pentling, a Bavarian village…
  • Esther DufloEsther Duflo was 46 when she became the youngest Nobel economics winner ever. She shared it in 2019.
  • Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger broke into a locked gym on weekends as a teenager. He later became California's governor.
  • Jean CocteauJean Cocteau recorded his 1929 recovery from opium in a diary of drawings and withdrawal notes.
  • Jules RimetThe Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1966 and recovered by a dog named Pickles. It was stolen again in 1983.
  • Charles LindberghCharles Lindbergh stared at a huge field of glowing lights near Paris in May 1927 and took it for a giant industrial complex. He had just flown alone across the Atlantic, and the airfield he was hunting was not on his map. All he knew was…
  • Jean GiraudouxPlaywright Jean Giraudoux died in Paris in 1944, and some suspect poison. His death has never been fully explained.
  • Ravi ShankarRavi Shankar was horrified when Jimi Hendrix set his guitar on fire. The sitar master saw instruments as part of God.
  • Quincy JonesQuincy Jones taped a sign to the entrance of a recording studio in 1985, and it read "Check Your Ego at the Door." Behind that door waited most of the major American recording artists of the day. Jones needed every one of them to work as…
  • Georges Ernest BoulangerGeneral Boulanger spent the night of his greatest triumph searching for his mistress.

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