Curated playlist
Officers of the Legion of Honour
- Bob DylanAt a 1966 Manchester concert, Bob Dylan told his band to play loud after a heckler called him Judas.
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg walked into Universal Studios without a pass, and the guard waved him in.
- T. S. EliotT. S. Eliot compared an evening sky to a patient on a surgical table.
- David LynchDavid Lynch began as a painter who just wanted his canvases to move. That wish led him to film.
- Jules VerneJules Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979. Only Agatha Christie ranks higher.
- Pierre-Auguste RenoirPainter Renoir was once mistaken for a spy and nearly thrown into the Seine. A man he had once protected stepped in.
- J. Robert OppenheimerJ. Robert Oppenheimer gripped a post to steady himself as the first nuclear bomb went off.
- Victor HugoVictor Hugo asked for a pauper's funeral and got the largest in French history.
- Robert Falcon ScottRobert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole in 1912 and found a tent Roald Amundsen had left there.
- Francis Ford CoppolaMarlon Brando won the Godfather role only after a screen test and a reduced fee.
- Thomas EdisonThomas Edison clamped his teeth into a piano to hear it. He was deaf in one ear and barely heard from the other.
- Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier's 1948 film Hamlet was the first non-American film to win Best Picture.
- Joseph StiglitzJoseph Stiglitz explained why wages stay high in recessions even when workers are desperate for jobs.
- Didier DeschampsDidier Deschamps is one of only three men to win the World Cup as both player and manager.
- Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell was honored after his death in an unusual way. When his funeral ended, for one minute at 6:25 p.m. Eastern Time, every telephone on the continent of North America was silenced. The man being remembered is credited…
- Gustave MoreauGustave Moreau asked that flowers for his funeral go to another woman's grave.
- Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand once filed a lawsuit that sent a crowd of strangers to look at a single photograph. In 2003 she claimed that a website documenting coastal erosion had invaded her privacy. Among its more than 12,000 images, one happened to…
- Zinedine ZidaneZinedine Zidane scored two headers from corners in the 1998 World Cup Final. France beat Brazil 3-0 in Paris.
- Just FontaineJust Fontaine scored thirteen goals in six matches at the 1958 World Cup.
- Georges DumézilGeorges Dumézil was shut out of French academic jobs after his thesis. His teacher told him to go abroad, to Istanbul.
- Valeri PolyakovValeri Polyakov refused a chair after 437 days in space and walked instead. It was a message about Mars.
- François GérardFrançois Gérard painted for Napoleon, then for the kings who replaced him. He served both regimes as court painter.
- Louis ViscontiLouis Visconti designed Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides in Paris. He first planned the city's 1840 decorations.
- Arsène WengerArsène Wenger led Arsenal through a whole league season without a defeat in 2003-04.
- Michel PlatiniMichel Platini scored nine goals in five matches at the 1984 European Championship. That record stood for 37 years.
- Jane GoodallJane Goodall had no university degree when she began studying chimpanzees. Cambridge still let her earn a doctorate.