More than 2,700 people went to his memorial service at Heinz Hall. Honorary guests included former "Good Morning America" host David Hartman, Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist Elsie Hillman, PBS President Pat Mitchell, "Arthur" creator Marc Brown, and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" author-illustrator Eric Carle. Speakers remembered Rogers for his love of children, devotion to his religion, love for music, and humor. Teresa Heinz Kerry said of Rogers, "He never condescended, just invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as the people others wished we were". Rogers is buried at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe.
President George W. Bush awarded Rogers the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 for his works to children's education. He said that "Fred Rogers has proven that television can soothe the soul and nurture the spirit and teach the very young".
In 2003, the United States Senate passed Resolution 16 to celebrate the life of Rogers. Following Rogers' death, the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 passed Resolution 111 honoring Rogers for "his legendary service to the improvement of the lives of children, his steadfast commitment to demonstrating the power of compassion, and his dedication to spreading kindness through example".
On New Year's Day 2004, Michael Keaton, who worked on stage on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" before becoming an actor, hosted the PBS TV special "Fred Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor". His hometown of Latrobe and Pittsburgh host "Won't You Wear a Sweater Day" to honor Rogers. The event takes place annually on his birth date, March 20. In 2003, the asteroid 26858 Misterrogers was named after Rogers by the International Astronomical Union.
One of Rogers' famous sweaters was bought by the Smithsonian Institution, which has it shown on their "Treasure of American History" exhibit. The Fred Rogers Memorial Statue in Pittsburgh was dedicated in 2009.
On June 25, 2016, the Fred Rogers Historical Marker was placed near Latrobe, Pennsylvania in his memory.
In June 2018, the documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" based on the life and legacy of Rogers, was released to positive reviews and became the highest money making biography-documentary (biodioc) of all time. Tom Hanks played Rogers in a movie based on his later life titled "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (2019) directed by Marielle Heller. Hanks would soon be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rogers.
Rogers was honored on a special United States postage stamp in March 2018. On September 21, 2018, Google Doodle honored him with a stop-motion video of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." On October 23, 2018, during the first game of the 2018 World Series, Rogers's first television commercial aired for Google's Pixel 3 smartphone. In the ad, Rogers sings "Did You Know" which is the first time his voice or images has been used in a commercial for a product on television.
In December 2019, it was announced that a statue of Rogers would be placed in at Nantucket Park in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
At the 2020 Academy Awards, Janelle Monáe performed Rogers' "Its a Beautiful Day in This Neighborhood" during the opening ceremony while wearing a red cardigan sweater. During her acceptance speech for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Renée Zellweger listed Rogers as one of the heroes people should look for.
At the 2021 Grammy Awards, Rogers was posthumously awarded the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for "It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers".
Sri Yukteswar Giri
Sri Yukteswar Giri (May 10, 1855 - March 9, 1936) was an Indian guru and swami. His real name was Priya Nath Karar and was born in Serampore, West-Bengal, India.
He is one of the famous people who appears on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
He became known through "Autobiography of a Yogi" as the guru of the author Paramahansa Yogananda.
George Harrison, the beatle, was initiated in kriya yoga in USA in Self-Realization Fellowship, an organization created by the known writer and great spiritual master in the west Paramahansa Yogananda.
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was a British mystic, occultist, writer, poet, mountain climber and nicknamed "The Wickedest Man In the World.".
He was an influential member in some occult organisations, such as the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is better known today for his occult books and papers. He was bisexual.
Crowley also started a mystical philosophy known as Thelema, the "Abbey of Thelema", and revived the term magick.
Edward Alexander Crowley was born at 36 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 11:59 p.m. on 12 October 1875.
In 1895, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge after going to Malvern College and Tonbridge School. In his three years at Cambridge, his father died and left him a large sum of money.
In December 1896, Crowley took interest in occultism and by the next year, he began reading books on alchemy and mysticism. A year later, he published his first book of poetry ("Aceldama"), and left Cambridge, only to meet Julian L. Baker who introduced him to Samuel Mathers and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
In November 1899, Crowley bought Boleskine House in Foyers on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.
Samuel Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organisation, acted as his early mentor in western magic. Crowley lost faith in his mentor's abilities in 1900 but did not officially break with Mathers until 1904.
Crowley died of a respiratory infection in a Hastings boarding house on 1 December 1947 at the age of 72. He had been addicted to heroin after being prescribed morphine for his asthma and bronchitis many years earlier.
Readings at the cremation service in Brighton included "Hymn to Pan", and newspapers referred to the service as a black mass.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928-5 December 2007) was a German composer. He was an important German composer in the years after World War II. During this time composers were exploring many new ideas. Stockhausen used serialism in new ways, and he invented many ways of composing electronic music. His works include an opera cycle "Licht" which includes seven operas.
Stockhausen was born near Cologne. His father was a village school teacher. His mother was put in a sanatarium in 1933 where she died in 1942. She was probably killed there because the Nazis thought people who were mentally ill should not be allowed to live.
Stockhausen was a young man during the war. He trained to be a teacher and was sent to work in a military hospital near where the army was. His father died fighting in the war. After the war, with no parents, he went to work on a farm. Then, in 1947, he went to study at the Cologne Musikhochschule. He played the piano in bars and clubs and he improvised at the piano when playing for a magician’s magic shows. He was thinking of becoming a writer.
At this time many of Germany’s important composers met every summer in Darmstadt. The course was called Darmstadt Holiday Course for New Music. Stockhausen went there in 1951. There he performed some modern music and met important people such as the music critic and philosopher Theodor Adorno. He heard the music of Messiaen and, soon after marrying, he went to Paris to study with Messiaen. In Paris he met Pierre Boulez and Pierre Schaeffer who was working on musique concrète. He experimented with different sounds that percussion instruments can make, and he started composing electronic music. When he went back to Cologne he worked in a studio for electronic music where he studied communications theory. By this time Stockhausen, Boulez and Nono were the leading composers of avant garde or experimental music.