Curated playlist
Recipients of the Legion of Merit
- Dr. SeussAn education publisher dared Dr. Seuss to write a book children can't put down. The result was The Cat in the Hat.
- 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…
- Dwight D. EisenhowerEisenhower wrote a note taking all blame if D-Day failed. He drafted it on the eve of the June 1944 landings.
- Jim MattisJim Mattis, the retired Marine general who became the 26th United States secretary of defense, once corrected a president-elect about his own nickname. Donald Trump asked whether he was really called Mad Dog. Mattis replied, "No, sir," and…
- Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
- Brad Cooper (admiral)Admiral Brad Cooper wrote a letter to U.S. troops in the Middle East, telling them they would "change the course of human history." On the 28th of February 2026, on the order of President Donald Trump, he began the American airstrikes on…
- Narendra ModiNarendra Modi became prime minister of India in 2014, and he was the first person to hold that office who was born after independence from the British Empire in 1947. He was born on the 17th of September 1950. Today he is the…
- George S. PattonA reporter once heard George S. Patton say that winning in combat took "blood and brains." The reporter began calling him "blood and guts," and the nickname followed Patton for the rest of his life. Soldiers under his command sometimes…
- Samuel C. PhillipsSamuel C. Phillips froze the Minuteman missile's design knowing its range was 1,000 miles short.
- Paul NitzePaul Nitze went to Japan to assess the damage after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It shaped his nuclear thinking for life.
- Gail HalvorsenGail Halvorsen handed two sticks of gum to Berlin children in July 1948. He was a young Air Force pilot.
- Walter Bedell SmithWalter Bedell Smith signed Italy's armistice under an olive tree in Sicily. It was September 3, 1943.
- Charles DukeCharles Duke walked on the Moon at 36, and no one younger has ever done it.
- Edwin HubbleEdwin Hubble studied law at Oxford because of a promise to his dying father. He still became an astronomer.
- Richard E. ByrdRichard E. Byrd, an American naval officer, spent 13 minutes circling a patch of Arctic sky on the 9th of May 1926. Then he turned for home. By his own account, he had just reached the North Pole. The round trip took 15 hours and 57…
- Grace HopperGrace Hopper hung a clock on her office wall that ran counterclockwise. She wanted code in plain English.