Fateful Meetings

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When Harry Met Sally ... well, they got on each other's nerves. Two destinies graze, then merge. In the little picture, they may end up as a wedding photo on a mantelpiece. In the big picture, they become part of 80 years' worth of collective memories. The close encounters we profile in the following pages aren't always first meetings; often they are the first significant ones. But sooner or later, they all created a cocktail of personalities — gin and vermouth, nitro and glycerin — that changed us. In a world that often seems out of people's control, these meetings prove that intimacy still matters; that a chance collision of two individuals can make a difference in how millions of the rest of us are enfranchised, enriched, entertained. John and Paul made music. Billie Jean and Bobby made sport. Fred and Ginger made love on their feet. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made conquest seem an act of comradeship. Read on, and recall how

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow
Young, in Love and Homicidal

On Jan. 5, 1930, Clyde Barrow, 20, visited a girlfriend in Dallas and went into the kitchen for some cocoa. There he met Bonnie Parker, 19; he remained sweet on her for their brutal careers. Their supposedly populist capers and violent deaths inspired a film mythology about love, girls and guns.

Fred Astaire And Ginger Rogers
Dancing Chic to Chic

First time out, it was Ginger and Fred: she was billed fourth, he fifth in Flying Down to Rio. They were filler, but when they stepped out in the musical number The Carioca, audiences knew that the gangly guy and the pert ingenue were an ideal match. Here was emotion expressed in motion, the finest blending of passion and technique. RKO would go on to pair Fred and Ginger in eight romances that would define how two bodies can flirt and fuse in dance.

Eva Duarte And Juan Peron
A Tango of Power in Argentina

The earth moved, and they met. On Jan. 15, 1944, an earthquake hit Argentina. At a benefit for victims, radio actress Eva Duarte sidled up to Colonel Juan Peron. The Lady had found her Macbeth. Peron was elected in 1946 and ran Argentina with the glittering Evita by his side until her death, at 33, from cancer in 1952.

Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad
Forging a Different Path for Blacks

Their religion got them together; their politics altered the lives of black America. On Aug. 31, 1952, Malcolm Little met Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam. Soon afterward, Little formally became Malcolm X. As colleagues, then enemies, they articulated the anger that still resonates in black communities.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
A Revolutionary Fellowship

When Argentine doctor Guevara and Cuban lawyer Castro crossed paths at a friend's house in Mexico in July 1955, Guevara noted in his diary, "[Castro] is intelligent, very sure of himself and of extraordinary audacity; I think there is mutual sympathy between us." These young men of privilege had much in common: a hatred of the influence of the U.S. on Latin America and a belief that guerrilla action could liberate the masses. On New Year's Day in 1959, Castro brought down the Batista regime and went on to create the first communist government in the western hemisphere. Guevara became a Cuban citizen and steered the country's economic policies. He left Cuba in 1965 to fight for the revolution in Africa and South America. Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army in 1967.

Edmund Hillary And Tenzing Norgay
Climbing the Highest Mountain

Why climb Everest? "Because it is there," said mountaineer George Leigh Mallory in 1924. But he died trying. In 1953 another expedition tried to reach the summit of the world and achieved it without death or serious injury. Among the team were a New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary, and a Nepalese porter, Tenzing Norgay. On May 29 the two fast trekkers paired off, and at 11:30 a.m. they spiked their names in the snows of history. Returning to the team, Hillary told his friend George Lowe, in tones of bluff British pluck, "Well, George, we've knocked the bastard off!"

John Lennon and Paul McCartney
The Birth of the Beatles

The Quarry Men were setting up for a dance in a church hall on July 6, 1957, when a 15-year-old bloke grabbed a guitar and ripped through two rockabilly tunes. Lennon, 16, was impressed but wary. If he let this talented McCartney kid in the band, he'd have to share leadership. Admiration won the day, and the Beatles' core had come together.

Muhammad Ali And Joe Frazier
The Contest of Champions

For Ali, the fight — his comeback after a jail term for draft refusal — was about race and redemption. For Frazier, it was about shutting Ali up. Ali had mocked Frazier as an Uncle Tom and a "gorilla." Frazier, less garrulous in public, replied with a torrent of body blows, winning the bout in 15 rounds and setting the stage for two historic rematches.