Curated playlist

Congressional Gold Medal recipients

Nelson MandelaNelson Mandela wore a Springbok shirt to the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. He gave the trophy to an Afrikaner captain.
Frank SinatraFrank Sinatra was dropped by his record label in 1952. A movie role then brought him back to the top.
Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39, yet his autopsy showed the heart of a 60 year old, according to his biographer Taylor Branch. Branch attributed the damage to stress. The causes were many. King was jailed repeatedly, attacked…
Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
Ulysses S. GrantIn 1859, Ulysses S. Grant freed an enslaved man worth at least $1,000 that he desperately needed.
Colin PowellOn the 5th of February 2003, Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council. He told the council: "there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more." The…
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II visited the man who shot him in 1981 and called him a brother.
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was slashed with a sword as a boy for refusing to polish a British officer's boots.
George GershwinGeorge Gershwin's last words were "Fred Astaire." He collapsed at age 38 while working on a film score.
John WayneJohn Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison and got his new name from a dog.
Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
Isiah ThomasIsiah Thomas scored 25 points in one Finals quarter on a badly sprained ankle. It was a 1988 NBA Finals record.
Thomas EdisonThomas Edison clamped his teeth into a piano to hear it. He was deaf in one ear and barely heard from the other.
Aaron CoplandComposer Aaron Copland planned one year of study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger but stayed three.
Harry S. TrumanHarry Truman became president knowing nothing about the atomic bomb. He had been vice president for only 82 days.
Winfield ScottWinfield Scott died on his own birthday, the 29th of May, at age 79. The general led the U.S. Army for twenty years.
Neil ArmstrongNeil Armstrong's astronaut application came about a week late, until a colleague slipped it into the pile.
Walt DisneyIn 1928, Walt Disney lost his hit cartoon rabbit Oswald to Universal. Only Ub Iwerks stayed, and Mickey Mouse followed.
Cornelius VanderbiltCornelius Vanderbilt died on the 4th of January 1877 at his residence, No. 10 Washington Place. He was 82. For about eight months he had been confined to his rooms. The immediate cause of death was exhaustion, brought on by a long struggle…
Lady Bird JohnsonLady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor, and almost nobody ever called her that. While she was still an infant, her nursemaid, Alice Tittle, remarked that the baby was as pretty as a ladybird. The comment became a lifelong name. Her…
1980 Summer Olympics boycottMuhammad Ali toured Africa for President Carter to push a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Michael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins orbited the Moon thirty times and never set foot on it.
Wright brothersThe Wright brothers' 1903 patent did not claim an airplane. It claimed a system for controlling one.
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,…
Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur came up with his own field marshal title. Philippine President Quezon conferred it in 1936.
Rosa ParksRosa Parks was forty-two years old on the evening she stayed in her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, and she spent decades insisting that weariness had nothing to do with it. She rejected the picture of herself as old or physically worn…
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…
Jonas SalkJonas Salk, the American virologist who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, was once asked a simple question by the television personality Ed Murrow: who owns the patent? Salk answered, "Well, the people I would say.…
Gail HalvorsenGail Halvorsen handed two sticks of gum to Berlin children in July 1948. He was a young Air Force pilot.
14th Dalai LamaA two-year-old asked a disguised monk for an old mala that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama.
Emmett TillEmmett Till was a boy from Chicago who was lynched in Mississippi in the summer of 1955. When his body came home, his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, made a decision that would reach far beyond her family. Looking back, she said: "There was…
Muhammad YunusMuhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist, once handed US$27 of his own money to 42 village women. Each woman made a profit of just BDT 0.50 on her loan, roughly US$0.02. It sounds like nothing at all. Yet from that tiny result he drew a…
Mother TeresaMother Teresa once summed herself up in a handful of short sentences. "By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world." The woman who said this was born Anjezë…
Marian AndersonMarian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial weeks after being banned from Constitution Hall.