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A Banner Year for Centennials

Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973).
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Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973).

Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000).
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Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000).
Actor Cary Grant (1904-1986).
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Actor Cary Grant (1904-1986).

NPR's Susan Stamberg takes a mid-year pause to reflect on the centennials being marked in 2004. Her list includes the births of actors Cary Grant and Sir John Gielgud, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the debut of the New York subway. Here are a few more people and things that came into being in 1904:

- Choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983)

- Pianist and swing band leader William "Count" Basie (1904-1984)

- Surrealist Painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

- Clarinetist and bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957)

- Children's author Theodore Geisel, a.k.a Dr. Seuss. (1904-1991)

- Actor Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000)

- Actor Cary Grant (1904-1986)

- Novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991)

- Trombone player and Bandleader Glenn Miller (1904-1944)

- Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

- Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)

- Pianist Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (1904-1943)

- Peter Pan

- New York's Times Square and subway system

- The St. Louis World's Fair

- The first ice cream cone

- Dr. Pepper

- Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, now known as toothpaste

- Post Toasties dry breakfast cereal

- Dr. Scholl's arch supports

- Campbell's Pork and Beans

- Rolls Royce Motor Cars

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Susan Stamberg was one of NPR's "founding mothers" (she also coined the phrase). She joined the network at the time of its inception in 1971, and her career at NPR spanned more than five decades.