21 August brings together punk rock and one of the most audacious art thefts in history. On 21 August 1952, Joe Strummer was born in Ankara, Turkey. He would go on to become the frontman of The Clash, one of the defining bands of the British punk movement. Exactly 41 years earlier, on 21 August […]
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Today, 20 August, brings together two very different creative figures who were born on exactly the same date: rock singer Robert Plant, born in 1948, and Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, born in 1910. Plant was born in West Bromwich, in England’s Black Country, and grew up nearby in Halesowen. He would go on to become […]
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On 3 August 1811, two seemingly unrelated events took place. In the Swiss Alps, the Jungfrau was climbed for the first time by the Meyer brothers and two experienced mountain guides. Reaching one of Europe’s great Alpine summits required determination, skill and endurance. At the time, such an ascent was the preserve of only the […]
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🥗 Peter O’Toole, Oil and the Fires of History: The 2 August Link Salad 🎬 The Star of the Day: Peter O’Toole Some days in Linkology have one obvious starting point. For 2 August, that link is undoubtedly Peter O’Toole. Born on 2 August 1932, O’Toole became one of cinema’s greatest actors, but one role […]
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Happy birthday to Fatboy Slim! Few artists are as closely associated with Britain’s seaside culture as Norman Cook. His landmark 1998 album You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby became one of the defining electronic music albums of its era, before he transformed Brighton Beach into the venue for the legendary Big Beach Boutique in 2002. […]
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Today’s link salad starts with the birthday of Douglas Adams, born on 11 March 1952 in Cambridge. Adams created The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, where the bureaucratic alien race known as the Vogons spend their time stamping forms, filing paperwork and reciting terrible poetry. From science fiction bureaucracy we move to real-world media power. […]
Continue reading Link Salad – 11 March: Vogons, Newspapers, and the Day Gorbachev Took Over
Two Davids under the same moon On 6 March 1475, the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo was born. More than any other sculptor, he defined the heroic language of the Renaissance. Among his works, one stands above all others: David, the towering marble figure that has come to symbolise the artistic confidence of Florence. Four and […]
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