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History bleg
In one year Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize, had a bestselling book, and won an Oscar. What are other historical examples of a person having multiple notable recognitions or achievements within a single year? And no, having sextuplets does not count...
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 13, 2007 at 08:50 AM in History | Permalink
Comments
Einstein's Miracle Year - four papers published in 1905: the photoelectric effect, brownian motion, special relativity, and matter and energy equivalence. In terms of multiple achievements in one year, I think this stands alone in human history.
Posted by: cactus at Oct 13, 2007 9:03:57 AM
There must be more than a few people who get multiple awards every year as Muhammad Yunus gets for his work in microcredit. But are there any awards that are as notable as the Oscar and the Nobel Prize?
John
http://www.grameen-info.org/bank/Listofawards.html
Posted by: Shakespeare's Fool at Oct 13, 2007 9:05:31 AM
If two Olympic medals counts, there are many.
John
Posted by: Shakespeare's Fool at Oct 13, 2007 9:13:23 AM
i dunno, I think Al Gore and the "greens" are too hyped, they are being rewarded because no one in the future will do anything about global warming, its just a way to say "Shssssh".
Posted by: rahul at Oct 13, 2007 9:50:47 AM
Jimmy Carter also had a Nobel Peace Prize and a bestseller in the same year. (2002, the book was 'Christmas in Plains: Memories', see source).
Tony Dungy has a super bowl title and a bestselling book this year.
IMHO the diversity is more important than numbers. In addition to Olympic medals, lots of people win multiple Tonies, Oscars, or Emmies in a year, but few win a Tony, an Oscar, and an Emmy in a lifetime. IMHO, though, Einstein's 1905 is still the best, as the diversity of mental skills necessary for relativity and the photoelectric effect is larger than the difference between a Peace Prize and an Oscar.
Posted by: DK at Oct 13, 2007 9:50:51 AM
Does Al gore's accomplishments count as multiple achievements, or multiple awards for essentially the same body of work? Certainly counts as multi-recognitions, but Einstein is the better example of multiple achievements.
Posted by: Jeremy at Oct 13, 2007 9:58:46 AM
In the past week my son was born, my mother told me she was proud of me, my wife said she loved me, I got an unexpected raise at work and found $20. Al Gore can suck it.
Posted by: Peter at Oct 13, 2007 10:41:06 AM
Hear hear!
Posted by: Jeff at Oct 13, 2007 11:14:55 AM
Well, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of France and then voted one of the best dressed men in the world by (was it?) Vogue.
No, that doesn't count?
Ok...
I think you'll find athletes like Bobby Fischer, Tiger Woods, Pete Sampras, etc. had "miracle years" where they won several competitions in a row. When great athletes hit a peak, they give stunning performances all year long. The problem is there aren't many sports where you have many important competitions during the same year.
Posted by: PEG at Oct 13, 2007 11:55:23 AM
Rod Laver in 1962 and again in 1969 won all four tennis majors in the same calender year. In 1988 Steffi Graf won all four slams and the Olympic gold medal, the so called "golden slam". That is probably the best year anyone ever had in sports.
Well maybe Mark Spitz, who won 7 gold medals in the 1972 Olympics has a case as well. Also Michael Phelps won 8 total medals (6 gold) in the 2004 Games.
Posted by: angus at Oct 13, 2007 11:58:30 AM
There's the Triple Crown, but that's won by a horse.
Posted by: Kaleberg at Oct 13, 2007 12:56:14 PM
One word about Mark Spitz golds. ALL were world records. Nobody has equalled that (admittedly several were team golds).
Tapen
Posted by: Tapen at Oct 13, 2007 12:57:21 PM
Peter wins.
Posted by: tom s. at Oct 13, 2007 1:12:11 PM
Fred Lynn: MVP and Rokie of the Year.Golden glove.All Star.American League Champion.1975
Valenzuela: Rookie of the Year and Cy Young.All Star. World champion with Dodgers.1981.
Jim Thorpe . Gold medal.Decatlon and Penthatlon .1912 .Olympics
Bob Fosse, 1972:Oscar: Cabaret( Over The Godfather?¿). Emmy: a documentary about Liza Minelli. Tony:Pippin
Posted by: Jules at Oct 13, 2007 2:00:21 PM
The horse has a Jockey ,a trainer ,and the groom.
Posted by: Jules at Oct 13, 2007 2:09:25 PM
Going back into history, Einstein's 1905 triple theory feat (most physicists would count the last two that 'cactus' cited as one achievement) was a reprise of Newton's triple in 1687: The Newtonian Laws of Mechanics, the theory of gravity, and Calculus (separately invented by Leibniz).
BTW - Einstein and Newton were both 25 years old in their miracle years.
Posted by: M. Hodak at Oct 13, 2007 2:26:40 PM
Don't forget, Al Gore also won an Emmy for Current TV this year. This was completely unrelated to any of his work for the environment.
Posted by: Alex F at Oct 13, 2007 2:39:10 PM
But, he's still Al Gore. Hypocrite, quitter, stiff board. Does that count as achievements as well?
Posted by: veblengood at Oct 13, 2007 3:15:51 PM
But, he's still Al Gore. Hypocrite, quitter, stiff board. Does that count as achievements as well?
Posted by: veblengood at Oct 13, 2007 3:16:12 PM
But, he's still Al Gore. Hypocrite, quitter, stiff board. Does that count as achievements as well?
Posted by: veblengood at Oct 13, 2007 3:16:16 PM
I'm surprised that blogging comment software doesn't just automatically disallow multiple repetitions of exactly the same post. One imagines that such repetition could never serve a practical purpose.
Posted by: mk at Oct 13, 2007 4:17:11 PM
Lance Armstrong's book was a NYT bestseller, and presumably he won the Tour de France that year, seeing as he did that continuously for most of a decade.
Posted by: Andromeda at Oct 13, 2007 4:36:02 PM
No dout there is some pharmacologist who's won multiple Olympic Golds in one year.
Posted by: dearieme at Oct 13, 2007 5:26:12 PM
mk
Multiple repetitions of a post are caused by a bug in the software the repeats the post when you "go back" to continue browsing.
Posted by: joan at Oct 13, 2007 5:34:10 PM
i'm feeling sick now! they should have done better than Gore.
Posted by: jack sparrow at Oct 13, 2007 6:15:37 PM
