Jan 2nd, 2009 · In January 1951, a massive blizzard hit the southern United States, blanketing the region in ice and snow. At the time, Dr. Jim Fleming was a high school student in Greenwood, Miss. In an interview with his daughter Janetta, he recalls how he spent those snowy days in the Deep South — and how it affected him for years to come.
Oct 25th, 2008 · A new Hank Williams collection has just been released, featuring songs that few fans have heard. The Unreleased Recordings of Hank Williams includes rare performances from a Nashville radio program Williams hosted in 1951. The legend's daughter, Jett Williams, discusses the origins of the newly found treasure trove of music.
Sep 26th, 2008 · Famous for his work on the first oral contraceptive in 1951, chemist Carl Djerassi has published a number of novels and plays over the last 20 years. His latest play, Taboos, grapples with the questions of sex divorced from reproduction.
Jun 26th, 2008 · Two artists in prime musical condition, chops- and career-wise, play outdoors and back to back at the J&R Music Festival in New York. We dedicate this program to Joe Lovano's long-time friend and bandmate, Dennis Irwin (1951-2008).
Apr 30th, 2007 · For one 89-year-old man, a lifetime of collecting baseball cards delivered a solid return this past weekend: $1.5 million dollars and counting. Lionel Carter of Evanston, Ill., sold a portion of his 50,000-card collection at auction. The items included the 1951 rookie card for Mickey Mantle.
Oct 3rd, 2006 · On Oct. 3, 1951, one of Major League Baseball's greatest moments took place. In the bottom of the 9th inning, the New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4, winning the National League Pennant. Batter Bobby Thomson's three-run homer became legendary. Deborah Amos talks to writer Joshua Prager, who reveals that the Giants had an unusual home-field advantage.
Jul 27th, 2006 · The original draft text of Jack Kerouac's On The Road will be published to mark the 50th anniversary of the book next year. Kerouac wrote his draft of the novel in a three-week period in 1951 on taped-together sections of tracing paper, resulting in a single scroll of nearly 120 feet of paper. Characters in the scroll version bear the names of real-life friends of the author, such as Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, rather than the fictionalized versions in the final edition.
Jun 19th, 2006 · Wesley Hill, a legendary rescuer on the Niagara River near Niagara Falls, died last Monday at age 76. Hill is said to have recovered the bodies of hundreds of people who died in the water -- and he saved more than 50 people from death. The Hill family was full of river men. Wesley's brother, William "Red" Hill, died in 1951, when he tried to go over the falls in a barrel made of inner-tubes in front of a crowd of 200,000 spectators. In addition, Wesley's father and another brother also worked on the river. We hear parts of a profile of Wesley Hill that aired on NPR in 1976.