History of Today 18 August: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 18 August. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 18 August. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 18 August 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 18 August in History

18 Aug 2019: One hundred activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after having once covered six square miles (15.5 km2). Read more
18 Aug 2017: The Turku terror attack occurs in Finland when a knifeman kills two and injures eight. Read more
18 Aug 2011: A terrorist attack on Israel's Highway 12 near the Egyptian border kills 16 and injures 40. Read more
18 Aug 2008: The President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, resigns under threat of impeachment. Read more
18 Aug 2008: War of Afghanistan: The Uzbin Valley ambush occurs. Read more
18 Aug 2005: A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java; affecting almost 100 million people, it is one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history. Read more
18 Aug 2003: One-year-old Zachary Turner is murdered in Newfoundland by his mother, who was awarded custody despite facing trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case was documented in the film Dear Zachary and led to reform of Canada's bail laws. Read more
18 Aug 1993: American International Airways Flight 808 crashes at Leeward Point Field at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, injuring the three crew members. Read more
18 Aug 1989: Leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galán is assassinated near Bogotá in Colombia. Read more
18 Aug 1983: Hurricane Alicia hits the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars). Read more
18 Aug 1977: Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He later dies from injuries sustained during this arrest, bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies. Read more
18 Aug 1976: The Korean axe murder incident in Panmunjom results in the deaths of two US Army officers. Read more
18 Aug 1976: The Soviet Union's robotic probe Luna 24 successfully lands on the Moon. Read more
18 Aug 1973: Aeroflot Flight A-13 crashes after takeoff from Baku-Bina International Airport in Azerbaijan, killing 56 people and injuring eight. Read more
18 Aug 1971: Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam. Read more
18 Aug 1966: Vietnam War: The Battle of Long Tan ensues after a patrol from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment clashes with a Viet Cong force in Phước Tuy Province. Read more
18 Aug 1965: Vietnam War: Operation Starlite begins: United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war. Read more
18 Aug 1963: Civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi. Read more
18 Aug 1958: Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States. Read more
18 Aug 1958: Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition as the first Bengali and the first Asian to do so, placing first among the 39 competitors. Read more
18 Aug 1950: Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium, is assassinated. The Party newspaper blames royalists and Rexists. Read more
18 Aug 1949: 1949 Kemi strike: Two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland. Read more
18 Aug 1945: Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country's declaration of independence the previous day. Read more
18 Aug 1945: Soviet-Japanese War: Battle of Shumshu: Soviet forces land at Takeda Beach on Shumshu Island and launch the Battle of Shumshu; the Soviet Union's Invasion of the Kuril Islands commences. Read more
18 Aug 1940: World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain, takes place. At that point, it is the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides. Read more
18 Aug 1938: The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States, with Ontario, Canada, over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Read more
18 Aug 1937: A lightning strike starts the Blackwater Fire of 1937 in Shoshone National Forest, killing 15 firefighters within three days and prompting the United States Forest Service to develop their smokejumper program. Read more
18 Aug 1933: The Volksempfänger is first presented to the German public at a radio exhibition; the presiding Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, delivers an accompanying speech heralding the radio as the 'eighth great power'. Read more
18 Aug 1923: The first British Track and Field championships for women are held in London, Great Britain. Read more
18 Aug 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage. Read more
18 Aug 1917: A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece, destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless. Read more
18 Aug 1903: German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers. Read more
18 Aug 1891: A major hurricane strikes Martinique, leaving 700 dead. Read more
18 Aug 1877: American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, one of Mars's moons. Read more
18 Aug 1870: Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Gravelotte is fought. Read more
18 Aug 1868: French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium. Read more
18 Aug 1864: American Civil War: Battle of Globe Tavern: Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Read more
18 Aug 1838: The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads. Read more
18 Aug 1826: Major Gordon Laing becomes the first European to enter Timbuktu. Read more
18 Aug 1809: The Senate of Finland is established in the Grand Duchy of Finland after the official adoption of the Statute of the Government Council by Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Read more

Famous Births on 18 August

18 Aug 2006: Summer McIntosh, Canadian swimmer Summer Ann McIntosh is a Canadian competitive swimmer. She is a three-time Olympic champion, eight-time World Aquatics champion, and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. Noted for her strength in medley, freestyle and butterfly events, she is the world record holder in the 200 meter butterfly, 200 and 400 meter individual medley and 400 meter freestyle. In the short course pool, she is a four-time World Swimming Championships gold medallist and holds world records in the 400 metre freestyle, 200 metre butterfly, and 400 metre individual medley events. Read more
18 Aug 1999: Cassius Stanley, American basketball player Cassius Jerome Stanley is an American professional basketball player who recently played for Šiauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). He played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils. Read more
18 Aug 1998: Brian To'o, Australian-Samoan rugby league player Brian To'o is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays as a winger for the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League, New South Wales in the State of Origin series. Known for his strength, he is regarded as one of the best wingers in the NRL. Read more
18 Aug 1998: Clairo, American singer-songwriter Claire Elizabeth Cottrill, known professionally as Clairo, is an American singer-songwriter. Read more
18 Aug 1998: Nick Fuentes, American far-right political commentator Nicholas Joseph Fuentes is an American far-right political commentator, live streamer, and influencer. He hosts the livestreamed show America First, where he has advanced white nationalism and white supremacy, Christian nationalism, the incel subculture, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ views, and antisemitism including Holocaust denial. His supporters are known as "Groypers". Read more
18 Aug 1997: Josephine Langford, Australian actress Josephine Eliza Langford is an Australian actress best known for her starring role as Tessa Young in the After film series. She also portrayed Emma Cunningham in the Netflix film Moxie. She also played Zoey Miller in the Amazon Prime Video romcom The Other Zoey and Katy Gibson in Gigi & Nate. Read more
18 Aug 1997: Renato Sanches, Portuguese footballer Renato Júnior Luz Sanches is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. Read more
18 Aug 1995: Alīna Fjodorova, Latvian figure skater Alīna Fjodorova is a Latvian figure skater. She is a three-time Latvian national champion and competed in the free skate at three ISU Championships – 2010 Junior Worlds in The Hague, Netherlands; 2012 Junior Worlds in Minsk, Belarus; and 2012 Europeans in Sheffield, England. In England, she ranked 18th in the short program, 14th in the free skate, and 16th overall. She finished 5th at the 2011 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. Read more
18 Aug 1995: Parker McKenna Posey, American actress Parker McKenna Posey is an American actress. She is known for her role as Kady Kyle on the television show My Wife and Kids (2001–2005). Read more
18 Aug 1994: Madelaine Petsch, American actress and YouTuber Madelaine Grobbelaar Petsch is an American-South African actress and social media personality. She is best known for portraying Cheryl Blossom on The CW television series Riverdale (2017–2023). Read more
18 Aug 1994: Morgan Sanson, French footballer Morgan Stéphane Sanson is a French professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Nice. Read more
18 Aug 1994: Seiya Suzuki, Japanese baseball player Seiya Suzuki is a Japanese professional baseball right fielder and designated hitter for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Suzuki is a five-time NPB All-Star, six-time NPB Best Nine Award winner, and a five-time winner of the NPB Golden Glove Award. Internationally, Suzuki represents Japan. Read more
18 Aug 1993: Jung Eun-ji, South Korean singer-songwriter Jung Eun-ji is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being a member of the South Korean girl group Apink. Jung released her debut solo extended play Dream in 2016. Read more
18 Aug 1993: Maia Mitchell, Australian actress and singer Maia McCall Mitchell is an Australian actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Callie Adams Foster in the Freeform drama The Fosters (2013–18) and its spin-off series Good Trouble (2019–24). She also co-starred with Ross Lynch in the Disney Channel original films Teen Beach Movie (2013) and Teen Beach 2 (2015) as McKenzie/Mack. For Australian audiences, she played the roles of Brittany Flune in the children's television series Mortified for the Nine Network, and as Natasha Ham in the Seven Network's teen drama Trapped. Read more
18 Aug 1992: Elizabeth Beisel, American swimmer Elizabeth Lyon Beisel is an American competition swimmer who specializes in backstroke and individual medley events. She has won a total of nine medals in major international competition, four gold, one silver, and four bronze spanning the Olympics, World Aquatics, and the Pan Pacific championships. Beisel competed in the 200-meter backstroke and 400-meter individual medley events at the 2008 Summer Olympics, placing fifth and fourth, respectively, in the world. She won the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley and bronze in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She also finished sixth in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Read more
18 Aug 1992: Bogdan Bogdanović, Serbian basketball player Bogdan Bogdanović is a Serbian professional basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also represents the Serbian national team. Read more
18 Aug 1992: Frances Bean Cobain, American visual artist and model Frances Bean Cobain is an American visual artist and model. She is the only child of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. She controls the publicity rights to her father's name and image. Read more
18 Aug 1991: Liz Cambage, Australian basketball player Elizabeth Folake Cambage is an Australian professional basketball player for the Sichuan Yuanda of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association. She won the Women's National Basketball League in 2011 and 2014 and the Women's Chinese Basketball Association championship in 2024. Cambage currently shares the WNBA single-game scoring record with Marina Mabrey and A'ja Wilson, with her 53-point performance against the New York Liberty on 17 July 2018. Read more
18 Aug 1991: Richard Harmon, Canadian actor Richard Scott Harmon is a Canadian actor. His roles on television include Jasper Ames in The Killing (2011–2012), Julian Randol on Continuum (2012–2015), John Murphy in The 100 (2014–2020), and Joe on Memory of a Killer (2026). Harmon received critical praise for his role in the 2013 film If I Had Wings and had a supporting role as Erik Campbell in the horror film Final Destination Bloodlines (2025). Read more
18 Aug 1989: Anna Akana, American actress, comedian, musician, and YouTuber Anna Kay Napualani Akana is an American YouTuber, comedian, actress, filmmaker, and musician. She has appeared in TV series, web series, films, and music videos that include Ray William Johnson's Breaking Los Angeles (2011), 10 Second Traumas (2011), Awkward (2011), Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" (2011), Ant-Man (2015), Hello, My Name Is Doris (2016), Dirty 30 (2016), Big City Greens (2018–present), Amphibia (2019–2022), Magical Girl Friendship Squad (2020), and Blade of the 47 Ronin (2022). Read more
18 Aug 1989: Yu Mengyu, Singaporean table tennis player Yu Mengyu is a retired Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Liaoning, China, Yu left China in 2006 at the age of 17 to join the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) under the Foreign Sports Talent Scheme. In the same year, Yu made her international debut for Singapore. Read more
18 Aug 1988: Jack Hobbs, English footballer Jack Hobbs is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He has played in the English Football League and Premier League for Lincoln City, Liverpool, Scunthorpe United, Leicester City, Hull City, Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers. Read more
18 Aug 1988: Eggert Jónsson, Icelandic footballer Eggert Gunnþór Jónsson is an Icelandic international footballer who plays predominantly as a midfielder but is also capable of playing as a centre back or in both full back roles. He plays for the Icelandic club Austfjarða after joining them from FH. Read more
18 Aug 1988: G-Dragon, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter and record producer Kwon Ji-yong, best known as G-Dragon (지드래곤), is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Dubbed the "King of K-pop", he rose to prominence as the leader of the South Korean boy band BigBang, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands in the world. Read more
18 Aug 1987: Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Polish mixed martial artist Joanna Jędrzejczyk is a Polish former professional mixed martial artist, Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer. Jędrzejczyk competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where she holds several records and is a former UFC Women's Strawweight Champion, including most successful strawweight title defenses (5), most consecutive wins at strawweight (8), and is the first Polish champion and first female European champion.
She has been called the greatest female strawweight mixed martial artist of all time, including by Daniel Cormier, who credited her with putting the weight class "on the map". Read more
18 Aug 1987: Justin Wilson, American baseball player Justin James Wilson is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Red Sox. Prior to his professional career, Wilson played college baseball for the Fresno State Bulldogs, where he was a member of the 2008 College World Series champions. Read more
18 Aug 1986: Evan Gattis, American baseball player James Evan Gattis is an American former professional baseball designated hitter and catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros. Gattis has also earned the nickname of El Oso Blanco or The White Bear, due to his raw power capabilities when playing for the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. While with Atlanta, he played catcher and occasionally left field. Read more
18 Aug 1986: Ross McCormack, Scottish footballer Ross McCormack is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for English side Doncaster City, who play in the Central Midlands Alliance League North Division. Read more
18 Aug 1985: Inge Dekker, Dutch swimmer Inge Dekker is a Dutch former competitive swimmer who specialised in butterfly and freestyle events. She won the bronze medal with the Dutch women's 4×100-metre freestyle relay team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, alongside teammates Inge de Bruijn, Marleen Veldhuis and Chantal Groot. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Dekker became Olympic champion in the 4×100-metre freestyle together with Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis, setting a then Olympic record. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she was part of the Dutch 4 x 100 metre freestyle team that won the silver medal, with Veldhuis, Heemskerk and Kromowidjojo, behind the Australian team who set a new Olympic record. Read more
18 Aug 1985: Bryan Ruiz, Costa Rican footballer Bryan Jafet Ruiz González is a Costa Rican former professional footballer. A left-footed attacking midfielder, he also played as a second striker. Read more
18 Aug 1984: Sigourney Bandjar, Dutch footballer Sigourney Bandjar is a Dutch former professional footballer. He previously played five years for Excelsior. Read more
18 Aug 1984: Robert Huth, German footballer Robert Huth is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is a three-time Premier League winner and has made the most Premier League appearances (322) by a German player. Read more
18 Aug 1983: Mika, Lebanese-born English recording artist and singer-songwriter Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr., known professionally as Mika, is a Lebanese singer-songwriter based in Paris and London. Mika rose to prominence after the release of his first extended play, Dodgy Holiday (2006), which contained his debut single "Relax, Take It Easy". The track was released in October 2006, and topped the charts throughout Europe. His first full-length studio album, Life in Cartoon Motion (2007), released on Island Records, was led by the single "Grace Kelly" which topped the UK Singles Chart for five weeks starting in January 2007. The album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. Life in Cartoon Motion helped Mika win a Brit Award in 2008 for Best British Breakthrough act, while its single "Love Today" was nominated for a Grammy Award. Read more
18 Aug 1983: Cameron White, Australian cricketer Cameron Leon White is an Australian former international cricketer who captained the national side in Twenty20 Internationals. A powerful middle order batsman and right-arm leg-spin bowler, White made his first-class cricket debut as a teenager in the 2000–01 season for the Victoria cricket team as a bowling all-rounder. During his time with Australia, White won the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
18 Aug 1981: César Delgado, Argentinian footballer César Fabián Delgado Godoy is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a winger. He also played as a central midfielder, making piercing forward runs through the center of the opposition's defence. His nickname "Chelito" is derived from that of Marcelo Delgado because of their same last name. Since 2013, he also holds Mexican citizenship. Read more
18 Aug 1981: Dimitris Salpingidis, Greek footballer Dimitris Salpingidis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was known to be "a very quick and useful tool on the counter attack." Read more
18 Aug 1980: Esteban Cambiasso, Argentinian footballer Esteban Matías Cambiasso Deleau, nicknamed "Cuchu", is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
18 Aug 1980: Rob Nguyen, Australian race car driver Robert Hoang Nguyen is an Australian racing car driver of Vietnamese descent who competed in the 2002 and part of the 2003 International Formula 3000 seasons before running out of money. He was noted for coming straight into F3000 after only nine previous car races in his life and was at one stage regarded as a potential major talent. Read more
18 Aug 1980: Ryan O'Hara, Australian rugby league player Ryan O'Hara is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Jacksonville Axemen in the USA Rugby League. A New South Wales State of Origin representative forward, he previously played in the NRL for the Canberra Raiders and the Wests Tigers. He played as a prop. Read more
18 Aug 1980: Bart Scott, American football player Bartholomew Edward Scott is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. Scott was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. After playing college football for the Southern Illinois Salukis, he was signed by the NFL's Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Scott was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2006. After playing his first seven years with the Ravens, Scott signed with the New York Jets in 2009. He would play his final four seasons for the Jets. Read more
18 Aug 1980: Jeremy Shockey, American football player Jeremy Charles Shockey is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes, earning first-team All-American honors in 2002. He was selected by the New York Giants in the first round of the 2002 NFL draft as the 14th pick. Read more
18 Aug 1979: Stuart Dew, Australian footballer Stuart Dew is an Australian rules football coach and former head coach of the Gold Coast Suns in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently an assistant coach at the Port Adelaide Football Club. As a player, he played for Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, winning premierships for both clubs in 2004 and 2008 respectively. Dew was acknowledged as being a long penetrating left foot kick of the football. Read more
18 Aug 1978: Andy Samberg, American actor and comedian David Andrew Jerome Samberg is an American actor, comedian, rapper, writer and producer. He is a member of the comedy music group the Lonely Island, along with childhood friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Samberg was also a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012, where he and his fellow group members are credited with popularizing the SNL Digital Shorts. Read more
18 Aug 1977: Even Kruse Skatrud, Norwegian musician and educator Even Skatrud is a Norwegian jazz musician, composer, arranger, Orchestra leader, and lecturer at the University of Oslo. He is the son of musician Harry Andersen and Marit Skatrud Andersen, married and divorced from singer-artist Anine Kruse Skatrud and son-in-law of the major Norwegian Contemporary composer Bjørn Kruse. Read more
18 Aug 1976: Paraskevas Antzas, Greek footballer (died 2026) Paraskevas Antzas was a Greek professional footballer who played as a centre-back. A seven-time league champion and three-time cup champion of Greece, he participated in the UEFA Champions League with Olympiacos and the UEFA Euro 2008 with the Greece national team. Read more
18 Aug 1975: Kaitlin Olson, American actress and comedian Kaitlin Willow Olson McElhenney is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her roles as Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds in the FX/FXX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Morgan Gillory in the ABC crime comedy drama series High Potential. Read more
18 Aug 1974: Nicole Krauss, American novelist and critic Nicole Krauss is an American author best known for her four novels Man Walks into a Room (2002), The History of Love (2005), Great House (2010) and Forest Dark (2017), which have been translated into 35 languages. Her fiction has been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, and Granta's Best American Novelists Under 40, and has been collected in The Best American Short Stories 2003, The Best American Short Stories 2008 and The Best American Short Stories 2019. In 2011, Nicole Krauss won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Great House. A collection of her short stories, To Be a Man, was published in 2020 and won the Wingate Literary Prize in 2022. Read more
18 Aug 1971: Patrik Andersson, Swedish footballer Patrik Jonas Andersson is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Read more
18 Aug 1971: Richard David James, English musician and record producer Richard David James, known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient, acid, and jungle, and he is closely associated with the intelligent dance music (IDM) genre. Journalists from publications including Mixmag, The New York Times, NME, Fact, Clash and The Guardian have called James one of the most influential and important artists in contemporary electronic music. Read more
18 Aug 1970: Jason Furman, American economist and politician Jason Furman is an American economist and professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On June 10, 2013, Furman was named by President Barack Obama as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Furman has also served as the deputy director of the U.S. National Economic Council, which followed his role as an advisor for the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign. Read more
18 Aug 1970: Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor and producer (died 2025) Malcolm-Jamal Warner was an American actor, musician and poet. He rose to prominence for his role as Theodore Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards. He was also known for his roles as Malcolm McGee on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie (1996–2000), Dr. Alex Reed in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines, Julius Rowe in Suits (2016–2017) and Dr. AJ Austin in the medical drama The Resident (2018–2023). Read more
18 Aug 1969: Everlast, American singer, rapper, and musician Erik Francis Schrody, known by his stage names Everlast and Whitey Ford, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter who was the frontman for hip hop group House of Pain. His breakthrough as a solo artist came in 1998 with his album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, which blended rock and hip-hop and garnered him his first Grammy Award nomination for the song "What It's Like". The album peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200 album chart, while the single peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. As of 2023, they remain his highest mainstream chart positions for an album and single respectively. Read more
18 Aug 1969: Masta Killa, American rapper Jamel Irief, better known by his stage name Masta Killa, is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He was only featured on one track on their 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang , but has been prolific on Clan group albums and solo projects since the mid-1990s. He released his debut album No Said Date in 2004 to positive reviews, and has since released four additional albums. Read more
18 Aug 1969: Mark Kuhlmann, German rugby player and coach Mark Kuhlmann is a retired German international rugby union player, having played for the DRC Hannover in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team. He captained Germany for a lengthy period of time during his career in the national team. He is, behind Horst Kemmling, Germany's second-most capped rugby player. Read more
18 Aug 1969: Edward Norton, American actor Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received various accolades including a Golden Globe Award, an Actor Award, two Critics' Choice Awards and two Satellite Awards in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards and two Emmy Awards. Read more
18 Aug 1969: Christian Slater, American actor and producer Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a leading role in The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakout role as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopathic high school student, in the satire Heathers (1989). Read more
18 Aug 1967: Daler Mehndi, Indian Punjabi singer, songwriter and record producer Daler Singh, better known as Daler Mehndi, is an Indian singer, songwriter, author, and record producer. He has helped to make Bhangra popular worldwide, as well as Indian pop music independent of Bollywood music. He is known for his dance songs, turban, and long flowing robes. Read more
18 Aug 1967: Brian Michael Bendis, American author and illustrator Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and artist. Read more
18 Aug 1966: Gustavo Charif, Argentinian director and producer Gustavo Charif is an Argentine writer, visual artist and film director. His works are a sort of Dadaism mixed with the secular poetry of actual times. Read more
18 Aug 1965: Ikue Ōtani, Japanese voice actress Ikue Ōtani is a Japanese actress who specializes in voice acting. She is best known for her anime roles in the Pokémon series, One Piece, Detective Conan, Corpse Party, Naruto, Cookie Run: Kingdom, Smile PreCure!, Uchi no Sanshimai, Konjiki no Gash Bell, and Persona 5. She is currently attached to Mausu Promotion. Her pet name is "Iku-chan". She is known for playing both male and female roles, and sometimes plays multiple roles in one production. She is a native of Tokyo, but grew up in Niigata Prefecture. Read more
18 Aug 1964: Craig Bierko, American actor and singer Craig Philip Bierko is an American actor. Read more
18 Aug 1964: Andi Deris, German singer and songwriter Andreas "Andi" Deris is a German singer, best known as one of the three co-lead vocalists of the power metal band Helloween, and co-founder and former lead singer of the metal band Pink Cream 69. Read more
18 Aug 1964: Mark Sargent, Australian rugby league player Mark Sargent is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative forward, he played in the NSWRL premiership for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Newcastle Knights, winning the Rothmans Medal in 1989 while playing for Newcastle. Read more
18 Aug 1964: Kenny Walker, American basketball player and sportscaster Kenneth Walker is an American former professional basketball player. He played primarily for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Sky" Walker, he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1989. He is currently a radio host for WVLK in Lexington, Kentucky. Read more
18 Aug 1962: Felipe Calderón, Mexican lawyer and politician, 56th President of Mexico Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is a Mexican politician and lawyer who served as the 63rd president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012 and Secretary of Energy during the presidency of Vicente Fox between 2003 and 2004. He was a member of the National Action Party for 30 years before quitting the party in November 2018. Read more
18 Aug 1962: Geoff Courtnall, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Geoffrey Lawton Courtnall is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1983 to 2000. He was the head coach of the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) and for the Victoria Vikes of the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL). Read more
18 Aug 1962: Adam Storke, American actor Adam J. Storke is an American actor who has starred in television and film. He is best known for playing Julia Roberts's love interest in the 1988 film Mystic Pizza and as Larry Underwood in the 1994 Stephen King mini series The Stand. Read more
18 Aug 1961: Huw Edwards, Welsh journalist and author Huw Edwards is a Welsh former news presenter. He was the lead presenter of BBC News at Ten, the late evening news programme of BBC Television, from 2003 to 2023. He resigned from the BBC in 2024, during a police investigation into indecent images of children offences to which he pleaded guilty. Read more
18 Aug 1961: Timothy Geithner, American banker and politician, 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Franz Geithner is an American former central banker who served as the 75th United States secretary of the treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009, following service in the Clinton administration. Since March 2014, he has served as president and chairman of Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm headquartered in New York City. Read more
18 Aug 1961: Bob Woodruff, American journalist and author Robert Warren Woodruff is an American television journalist. Since 1996, he has served as a reporter for ABC News. Woodruff co-anchored ABC World News Tonight in 2006 with journalist Elizabeth Vargas. He was severely injured by an IED explosion during a reporting trip to Iraq that January, and he recovered over an extended period before returning to air. Read more
18 Aug 1960: Mike LaValliere, American baseball player Michael Eugene LaValliere is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago White Sox. Read more
18 Aug 1960: Fat Lever, American basketball player and sportscaster Lafayette "Fat" Lever is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association. He later served as the director of player development for the Sacramento Kings of the NBA as well as an analyst for Kings radio broadcasts. Read more
18 Aug 1959: Tom Prichard, American wrestler and trainer Thomas Prichard is an American retired professional wrestler and author better known by the ring name Dr. Tom Prichard. He is the older brother of Bruce Prichard. Read more
18 Aug 1958: Didier Auriol, French race car driver Didier Auriol is a French former rally driver. Born in Montpellier and initially an ambulance driver, he competed in the World Rally Championship throughout the 1990s. He became World Rally Champion in 1994, the first driver from his country to do so. He was a factory candidate for Lancia, Toyota and Peugeot among others, before losing his seat at Škoda at the end of 2003. His sister Nadine was also involved in rallying as a co-driver, while his brother Gerrard was also a former rally driver. Read more
18 Aug 1958: Madeleine Stowe, American actress Madeleine Stowe is an American actress. She appeared mostly on television before her role in the 1987 crime-comedy film Stakeout. She went on to star in the films Revenge (1990), Unlawful Entry (1992), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Blink (1993), 12 Monkeys (1995), The General's Daughter (1999), and We Were Soldiers (2002). For her role in the 1993 independent film Short Cuts, she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Read more
18 Aug 1957: Carole Bouquet, French actress Carole Bouquet is a French actress who has appeared in more than 60 films since 1977. In 1990, she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress for her role in Too Beautiful for You. Read more
18 Aug 1957: Tan Dun, Chinese composer Tan Dun is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a pairing which has shaped much of his life and music. Having collaborated with leading orchestras around the world, Tan is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Grawemeyer Award for his opera Marco Polo (1996) and both an Academy Award and Grammy Award for his film score in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). His oeuvre as a whole includes operas, orchestral, vocal, chamber, solo and film scores, as well as genres that Tan terms "organic music" and "music ritual." Read more
18 Aug 1957: Denis Leary, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter Denis Colin Leary is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV and through the stand-up specials No Cure for Cancer (1993) and Lock 'n Load (1997). Leary began taking roles in film and television starting in the 1990s, including substantial roles in the films Judgment Night (1993), Demolition Man (1993), The Ref (1994), Two If By Sea (1996), Suicide Kings (1997), Wag the Dog (1997), Monument Ave. (1998) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). Read more
18 Aug 1957: Ron Strykert, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Ronald Graham Strykert is an Australian musician. He is best known for playing lead guitar, co-founding and composing songs with the 1980s band Men at Work. Read more
18 Aug 1956: John Debney, American composer and conductor John Cardon Debney is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres like comedy, horror, science fiction, thriller, fantasy, and action-adventure. He is a long-time collaborator of Disney and has written music for their films, television series, and theme parks. He has frequently collaborated with film directors including Brian Robbins, Jon Favreau, Garry Marshall, Tom Shadyac, Peter Hyams, Mark Dindal, and Brad Anderson. Read more
18 Aug 1956: Sandeep Patil, Indian cricketer and coach Sandeep Patil is an Indian former cricketer, India national age-group cricket manager and former Kenya national team coach, who guided the underdogs to the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup. He was a hard-hitting middle order batsman and an occasional medium pace bowler. Patil was a member of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup and the 1984 Asia Cup. He was the coach of Mumbai Champs in the Indian Cricket League, but returned to the mainstream when he cut ties with the unofficial league in 2009. He later served as the director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and as the chief of the BCCI Selection Committee. Read more
18 Aug 1956: Jon Schwartz, American drummer and producer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz is a drummer best known for working with the singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic. The two met while recording "Another One Rides the Bus" at the Dr. Demento show on September 14, 1980. Shortly after, Yankovic invited Schwartz to join his band, gave him the nickname "Bermuda" and they have worked together ever since. Schwartz is heard and/or seen on all of Yankovic's albums, videos, and concerts. Read more
18 Aug 1956: Kelly Willard, American singer-songwriter Kelly Willard is a contemporary Christian musician best known for her praise and worship recordings. She was featured as a soloist on recordings from Integrity, Vineyard Music, and Maranatha! Music. Additionally she has sung duets and background vocals with such artists as Don Moen, Dion DiMucci, Lenny LeBlanc, Amy Grant, Ricky Skaggs, Paul Overstreet, Twila Paris, Steve Green, Fernando Ortega, Keith Green, Buddy Greene, Jim Cole and many others. Willard has also recorded nine solo projects. Read more
18 Aug 1956: Rainer Woelki, German cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki is a German Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Cologne since 2014. This came following his election by the Cathedral Chapter to succeed Joachim Meisner. He previously served as Archbishop of Berlin. He was made a cardinal in 2012. Read more
18 Aug 1955: Bruce Benedict, American baseball player and coach Bruce Edwin Benedict is an American former professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Atlanta Braves from 1978 to 1989. Read more
18 Aug 1955: Taher Elgamal, Egyptian-American cryptographer Taher Elgamal is an Egyptian-American cryptographer and tech executive. Since January 2023, he has been a partner at venture capital firm Evolution Equity Partners. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Securify and the director of engineering at RSA Security. From 1995 to 1998, he was the chief scientist at Netscape Communications. From 2013 to 2023, he served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Security at Salesforce. Read more
18 Aug 1954: Umberto Guidoni, Italian astrophysicist, astronaut, and politician Umberto Guidoni is an Italian astrophysicist, science writer and a former ESA astronaut, being the first European to visit the International Space Station. He is a veteran of two NASA Space Shuttle missions. He was also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2004 to 2009, with the Group of the European United Left (GUE/NGL). Read more
18 Aug 1953: Louie Gohmert, American captain, lawyer, and politician Louis Buller Gohmert Jr. is an American attorney, politician, and former judge who was the U.S. representative from Texas's 1st congressional district from 2005 to 2023. Gohmert is a Republican and was part of the Tea Party movement. In January 2015, he unsuccessfully challenged John Boehner for Speaker of the House of Representatives. In November 2021, he announced his candidacy in the 2022 Texas Attorney General election. He failed to advance to the Republican primary runoff, finishing fourth with 17% of the vote. Read more
18 Aug 1953: Marvin Isley, American R&B bass player and songwriter (died 2010) Marvin Isley was an American musician best known as the youngest member of the family music group the Isley Brothers and its bass guitarist. Read more
18 Aug 1952: Elayne Boosler, American actress, director, and screenwriter Elayne Boosler is an American comedian, writer, and actress. Read more
18 Aug 1952: Patrick Swayze, American actor and dancer (died 2009) Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, singer-songwriter and dancer. Known for his romantic, tough, and comedic roles in blockbusters and cult films, Swayze was nominated for three Golden Globes and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997. Read more
18 Aug 1952: Ricardo Villa, Argentinian footballer and coach Ricardo Julio Villa, more commonly known as Ricky Villa, is an Argentine football coach and former professional midfielder. He was famous for his time playing football from 1970 to 1989. Read more
18 Aug 1950: Dennis Elliott, English drummer and sculptor Dennis Leslie Elliott is a British musician and artist who was the original drummer for the rock band Foreigner. He played with the band from 1976 until leaving between 1991 and 1993. He went on to become a sculptor. Read more
18 Aug 1949: Nigel Griggs, English bass player, songwriter, and producer Nigel Griggs is an English musician, best known as bass guitarist in the band Split Enz. He is the brother of Paul Griggs from the 1970s vocal group Guys 'n' Dolls. Read more
18 Aug 1948: James Jones, English bishop James Stuart Jones is a retired Church of England bishop. He was the Bishop of Liverpool between 1998 and 2013. Read more
18 Aug 1948: John Scarlett, English intelligence officer, former head of MI6 Sir John McLeod Scarlett is a British senior intelligence officer. He was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 2004 to 2009. Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). Read more
18 Aug 1945: Sarah Dash, American singer-songwriter and actress (died 2021) Sarah Dash was an American singer. She first appeared on the music scene as a member of Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles. Dash was later a member of Labelle, and worked as a singer, session musician, and sidewoman for The Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards. Read more
18 Aug 1945: Värner Lootsmann, Estonian lawyer and politician Värner Lootsmann is an Estonian politician from Harju County. Read more
18 Aug 1945: Lewis Burwell Puller, Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and author (died 1994) Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. was an attorney and a United States Marine Corps officer who was severely wounded in the Vietnam War. He won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his autobiography Fortunate Son. Read more
18 Aug 1944: Paula Danziger, American author (died 2004) Paula Danziger was an American children's author who wrote more than 30 books, including her 1974 debut The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, for children's and young adult audiences. At the time of her death, all her books were still in print; they had been published in 53 countries and translated into 14 languages. Read more
18 Aug 1944: Robert Hitchcock, Australian sculptor and illustrator Robert Charles Hitchcock is an Australian sculptor. He commenced his career in 1970 and works in a wide variety of subjects and materials. Hitchcock is one of the leading portrait sculptors currently working in Australia today. He is known for his life size bronze sculptures which are located in private collections as well as public works of art in Australia and overseas. Read more
18 Aug 1943: Martin Mull, American actor and comedian (died 2024) Martin Eugene Mull was an American actor, musician, and painter. He became known on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, then its spin-off Fernwood 2 Night, and America 2 Night. His other notable roles included Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film Clue, Leon Carp on Roseanne, Willard Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius on Danny Phantom, and Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development. He also had a recurring role on Two and a Half Men as Russell, a drug-using humorous pharmacist. Read more
18 Aug 1943: Gianni Rivera, Italian footballer and politician Giovanni "Gianni" Rivera is an Italian politician and former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Read more
18 Aug 1943: Carl Wayne, English singer and actor (died 2004) Colin David Tooley, better known as Carl Wayne, was an English singer and actor. He is best remembered as the lead singer of The Move, a group that he co-founded in 1965. He sings lead on several of the band's hits, such as "Curly", "Flowers in the Rain and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." Read more
18 Aug 1942: Henry G. Sanders, American actor Henry Gale Sanders is an American actor best known for his role in Charles Burnett's 1977 neo-realist film Killer of Sheep. He has also appeared extensively on television, on such programs as The Rockford Files, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, Knight Rider, Knots Landing, Miami Vice, Cagney & Lacey, Married… with Children, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, NYPD Blue, and The Mentalist. Read more
18 Aug 1940: Adam Makowicz, Polish-Canadian pianist and composer Adam Makowicz is a Polish pianist and composer living in New York. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions. Read more
18 Aug 1940: Gil Whitney, American journalist (died 1982) Gilman "Gil" Whitney (1940–1982) was an American television personality in Dayton, Ohio, who worked primarily at WHIO television and radio until his death in 1982. He was posthumously inducted into the Dayton Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2005. Read more
18 Aug 1939: Maxine Brown, American soul/R&B singer-songwriter Maxine Ella Brown is an American soul and R&B singer. Read more
18 Aug 1939: Robert Horton, English businessman (died 2011) Sir Robert Baynes Horton was a British businessman. He was a director of the European Advisory Council and of Emerson Electric Company. He spent 30 years working for BP, formerly British Petroleum. He became Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board of BP in March 1990, but was forced out in 1992. Read more
18 Aug 1939: Johnny Preston, American pop singer (died 2011) John Preston Courville, known professionally as Johnny Preston, was an American rock and roll singer, best known for his 1959 international number one hit "Running Bear" and his 1960 hit “Cradle of Love” Read more
18 Aug 1937: Sheila Cassidy, English physician and author Sheila Anne Cassidy is an English doctor, known for her work in the hospice movement, as a writer and as someone who, by publicising her own history as a torture survivor, drew attention to human rights abuse in Chile in the 1970s. Read more
18 Aug 1936: Robert Redford, American actor, director, and producer (died 2025) Charles Robert Redford Jr. was an American actor, director, and producer, celebrated for his magnetic presence as a leading man during the American New Wave. Across a career spanning more than six decades, Redford earned widespread recognition and numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and five Golden Globe Awards, including a Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994. He also earned various other honors, including the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996, the Academy Honorary Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary César in 2019. Read more
18 Aug 1935: Gail Fisher, American actress (died 2000) Gail Fisher was an American actress who was one of the first Black women to play substantive roles in American television. She was best known for playing the role of secretary Peggy Fair on the television detective series Mannix from 1968 through 1975, a role for which she won two Golden Globe Awards and an Emmy Award; she was the first African-American woman to win those prestigious awards. She also won an NAACP Image Award in 1969. In addition to her acting career, Fisher was a successful jazz lyricist. Read more
18 Aug 1935: Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Namibia Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO and was reelected in 2009. Pohamba was the president of SWAPO from 2007 until his retirement in 2015. He is a recipient of the Ibrahim Prize. Read more
18 Aug 1934: Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author (died 2015) Vincent T. Bugliosi Jr. was an American prosecutor and author who served as Deputy District Attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office between 1964 and 1972. He became best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the August 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders. Read more
18 Aug 1934: Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and soldier (died 1972) Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, primarily as a right fielder. On December 31, 1972, Clemente was killed when his Douglas DC-7 airplane, which he had chartered for a flight to deliver emergency relief goods for the survivors of a massive earthquake in Nicaragua, crashed and plunged into the water off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico. He was 38 years old. After his death, the National Baseball Hall of Fame changed its rules so that a player who had been dead for at least six months would be eligible for entry. In 1973, Clemente was posthumously inducted, becoming the first Latino and Caribbean player and second of Hispanic descent to be honored in the Hall of Fame. He is widely referred to as "the Great One." Read more
18 Aug 1934: Gulzar, Indian poet, lyricist and film director Gulzar is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as an important Urdu poet of this era. He started his career with music director S.D. Burman as a lyricist in the 1963 film Bandini and worked with many music directors including R. D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Vishal Bhardwaj and A. R. Rahman. Gulzar also writes poetry, dialogues and scripts. He directed films such as Aandhi and Mausam during the 1970s and the TV series Mirza Ghalib in the 1980s. He also directed Kirdaar in 1993. He attended United Christian School Ludlow Castle Delhi. He indicated this in Rekhta Prog in an interview by Divya Dutta. Read more
18 Aug 1934: Rafer Johnson, American decathlete and actor (died 2020) Rafer Lewis Johnson was an American decathlete and film and television actor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956. He had previously won a gold at the 1955 Pan American Games. Johnson was the U.S. team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Read more
18 Aug 1934: Michael May, German-Swiss race car driver and engineer Michael[1] May is a former racing driver and engineer from Switzerland. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 May 1961. He scored no championship points. Read more
18 Aug 1933: Just Fontaine, Moroccan-French footballer and manager (died 2023) Just Louis Fontaine was a French professional footballer who played as a striker. He scored the most goals ever in a single FIFA World Cup, with thirteen in six matches in the 1958 tournament. Read more
18 Aug 1933: Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer, screenwriter, and actor Raymond Roman Thierry Polański is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three British Academy Film Awards, ten César Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards as well as a Golden Bear and a Palme d'Or. Read more
18 Aug 1933: Frank Salemme, American gangster and hitman (died 2022) Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "the General", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness. Read more
18 Aug 1932: Luc Montagnier, French virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2022) Luc Montagnier was a French virologist and joint recipient, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen, of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He worked as a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Read more
18 Aug 1931: Bramwell Tillsley, Canadian 14th General of The Salvation Army (died 2019) Bramwell Harold Tillsley was a Canadian salvationist and writer, who was the 14th General of The Salvation Army (1993–1994). General Tillsley died on Saturday, November 2, 2019, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Read more
18 Aug 1931: Hans van Mierlo, Dutch journalist and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 2010) Henricus Antonius Franciscus Maria Oliva "Hans" van Mierlo was a Dutch politician and journalist who co-founded Democrats 66 (D66). Read more
18 Aug 1931: Grant Williams, American film, theater and television actor (died 1985) Grant Williams was an American film, theater, and television actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Scott Carey in the science fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), and for his starring role as Greg MacKenzie on Hawaiian Eye from 1960 through 1963. Read more
18 Aug 1930: Liviu Librescu, Romanian-American engineer and academic (died 2007) Liviu Librescu was a Romanian–Israeli-American scientist and engineer. A prominent academic in addition to being a survivor of the Holocaust, his major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics. Read more
18 Aug 1930: Rafael Pineda Ponce, Honduran academic and politician (died 2014) Rafael Pineda Ponce was a Honduran professor and politician in the Liberal Party of Honduras and President of the National Congress of Honduras from 1998 to 2002. Read more
18 Aug 1929: Hugues Aufray, French singer-songwriter Hugues Jean Marie Auffray, better known as Hugues Aufray, is a French singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is known for French-language covers of Bob Dylan's songs. Aufray knew Dylan and his work from his time in New York City, as well as from record shops, and his translations capture the rawness of the original songs. Read more
18 Aug 1928: Marge Schott, American businesswoman (died 2004) Margaret Carolyn Schott was an American baseball executive. Serving as managing general partner, president and CEO of Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds franchise from 1984 to 1999, she was the second woman to own a North American major-league team without inheriting it, after New York Mets founder Joan Whitney Payson. Read more
18 Aug 1928: Sonny Til, American R&B singer (died 1981) Earlington Carl Tilghman, known as Sonny Til, was an American singer. He was the lead singer of The Orioles, a vocal group from Baltimore, Maryland, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Read more
18 Aug 1927: Rosalynn Carter, 41st First Lady of the United States (died 2023) Eleanor Rosalynn Carter was an American activist and humanitarian who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, as the wife of President Jimmy Carter, from their marriage from 1946 until her death in 2023. Throughout her decades of public service, she was a leading advocate for women's rights and mental health. Read more
18 Aug 1925: Brian Aldiss, English author and critic (died 2017) Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science-fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s. Read more
18 Aug 1925: Pierre Grondin, Canadian surgeon and academic (died 2006) Pierre Grondin, was a Canadian cardiac surgeon known for his contributions to heart transplantation and cardiac surgery. After completing postgraduate training with Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley in Houston, Texas, Grondin introduced advanced techniques—such as open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine and coronary artery bypass surgery—at the Montreal Heart Institute. In the early 1950s, he contributed to the development of open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine. In May 1968, Grondin performed Canada's first successful heart transplant at the Montreal Heart Institute. Read more
18 Aug 1925: Anis Mansour, Egyptian journalist and author (died 2011) Anis Mansour, also transliterated as Anīs Manṣūr was an Egyptian writer. Read more
18 Aug 1923: Katherine Victor, American actress (died 2004)[better source needed] Katherine Victor was an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles in Ron Ormond's Mesa of Lost Women (1953) and a number of Jerry Warren's films. She was also known as Katina Vea. Read more
18 Aug 1922: Alain Robbe-Grillet, French director, screenwriter, and novelist (died 2008) Alain Robbe-Grillet was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon. Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on 25 March 2004, succeeding Maurice Rheims at seat No. 32. He married Catherine Robbe-Grillet. Read more
18 Aug 1921: Lydia Litvyak, Russian lieutenant and pilot (died 1943) Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak, also known as Lilya, was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during World War II. Historians' estimates for her total victories range from thirteen to fourteen solo victories and four to five shared kills in her 66 combat sorties.
In about two years of operations, she was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft, the first of two female fighter pilots who have earned the title of fighter ace and the holder of the record for the greatest number of kills by a female fighter pilot. She was shot down near Orel during the Battle of Kursk as she attacked a formation of German aircraft. Read more
18 Aug 1921: Zdzisław Żygulski, Polish historian and academic (died 2015) Zdzisław Żygulski was a Polish art historian and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The son of Zdzisław Żygulski (senior), he was the curator of the Arms and Armour Section of the Czartoryski Museum from 1949 until his death in 2015 in Kraków, aged 93. Read more
18 Aug 1920: Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (died 1999) Thomas Godfrey Evans was an English cricketer who played for Kent and England. Described by Wisden as 'arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen', Evans collected 219 dismissals in 91 Test match appearances between 1946 and 1959 and a total of 1066 in all first-class matches. En route he was the first wicket keeper to reach 200 Test dismissals and the first Englishman to reach both 1000 runs and 100 dismissals and 2000 runs and 200 dismissals in Test cricket. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1951. Read more
18 Aug 1920: Bob Kennedy, American baseball player and manager (died 2005) Robert Daniel Kennedy was an American professional baseball right fielder, third baseman, manager and executive in Major League Baseball. Read more
18 Aug 1920: Shelley Winters, American actress (died 2006) Shelley Winters was an American actress, whose film career spanned seven decades. In 1943 she changed her name to Shelley, after her favorite poet, and Winter(s) taking her mother's maiden name. She won two Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received Oscar nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). She was also a Golden Globe Award winner for the Poseidon Adventure, a Primetime Emmy Award winner, and a two-time BAFTA Award nominee. She was an active member of the Actors Studio. Read more
18 Aug 1919: Wally Hickel, American businessman and politician, 2nd Governor of Alaska (died 2010) Walter Joseph Hickel was an American businessman, real estate developer, and politician who served as the second governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and 1990 to 1994, as well as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1969 to 1970. He worked as a construction worker and eventually became a construction company operator during Alaska's territorial days. Following World War II, Hickel became heavily involved with real estate development, building residential subdivisions, shopping centers and hotels. Hickel entered politics in the 1950s during Alaska's battle for statehood and remained politically active for the rest of his life. Read more
18 Aug 1918: Cisco Houston, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1961) Gilbert Vandine "Cisco" Houston was an American folk singer and songwriter, who is closely associated with Woody Guthrie due to their extensive history of traveling and recording together. Read more
18 Aug 1917: Caspar Weinberger, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (died 2006) Caspar Willard Weinberger was an American politician and businessman who served in a variety of state and federal positions for three decades as a Republican, most notably as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1987. During the Iran–Contra investigation, he was indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing government investigations but was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before facing trial. Read more
18 Aug 1916: Neagu Djuvara, Romanian historian, journalist, and diplomat (died 2018) Neagu Bunea Djuvara was a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. Read more
18 Aug 1916: Moura Lympany, English pianist (died 2005) Dame Moura Lympany was an English concert pianist. Read more
18 Aug 1915: Max Lanier, American baseball player and manager (died 2007) Hubert Max Lanier was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and St. Louis Browns. He led the National League in earned run average in 1943, and was the winning pitcher of the clinching game in the 1944 World Series against the Browns. His son Hal became a major league infielder and manager. Read more
18 Aug 1914: Lucy Ozarin, United States Navy lieutenant commander and psychiatrist (died 2017) Lucy Dorothy Ozarin was a psychiatrist who served in the United States Navy. She was one of the first women psychiatrists commissioned in the Navy, and she was one of seven female Navy psychiatrists who served during World War II. Read more
18 Aug 1913: Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (died 1983) Romanus Maes was a Belgian cyclist who won the 1935 Tour de France after wearing the yellow jersey of leadership from beginning to end. Maes was the 13th child in his family. He started racing when he was 17. He turned professional in 1933 and won the Tour de l'Ouest. The following year he started the Tour de France and twice finished stages in second place. He then crashed on the day from Digne to Nice and left the race in an ambulance. Read more
18 Aug 1912: Otto Ernst Remer, German general (died 1997) Generalmajor Otto Ernst Remer was a German Army officer who served during World War II and played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler. He was a captain and a major (1943–1944), and finally a Oberst (colonel) and a Generalmajor in 1945. In his later years, he became a politician and far-right activist. He co-founded the Socialist Reich Party in West Germany in the 1950s and is considered an influential figure in postwar neo-fascist politics in Germany. Read more
18 Aug 1911: Amelia Boynton Robinson, American activist (died 2015) Amelia Isadora Platts Boynton Robinson was an American activist and supercentenarian who was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama, and a key figure in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Read more
18 Aug 1911: Klara Dan von Neumann, Hungarian computer scientist and programmer (died 1963) Klára Dán von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician, self-taught engineer and computer scientist, noted as one of the first computer programmers. She was the first woman to execute modern-style code on a computer. Dán made significant contributions to the world of programming, including work on the Monte Carlo method, ENIAC, and MANIAC I. Read more
18 Aug 1911: Maria Ulfah Santoso, Indonesian politician and women's rights activist (died 1988) Maria Ulfah Soebadio Sastrosatomo, better known by her first married name Maria Ulfah Santoso, was an Indonesian politician and women's rights activist who served as Minister of Social Affairs under Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir. She was the first Indonesian woman to receive a degree in law as well as the first female Indonesian cabinet member. Santoso, the daughter of a politician, became interested in women's rights after seeing numerous injustices in her youth. Despite pressure to become a doctor, she graduated with a degree in law from Leiden University in 1933; while in the Netherlands she also became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement. Read more
18 Aug 1910: Herman Berlinski, Polish-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2001) Herman Berlinski was a German-born American composer, organist, pianist, musicologist and choir conductor. Read more
18 Aug 1910: Robert Winters, Canadian colonel, engineer, and politician, 26th Canadian Minister of Public Works (died 1969) Robert Henry Winters was a Canadian politician and businessman. Read more
18 Aug 1909: Gérard Filion, Canadian businessman and journalist (died 2005) Gérard Filion, was a Canadian businessman and journalist. Read more
18 Aug 1908: Edgar Faure, French historian and politician, 139th Prime Minister of France (died 1988) Edgar Jean Faure was a French politician, lawyer, essayist, historian and memoirist who served as Prime Minister of France in 1952 and again between 1955 and 1956. Prior to his election to the National Assembly for Jura under the Fourth Republic in 1946, he was a member of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) in Algiers (1943–1944). A Radical, Faure was married to writer Lucie Meyer. In 1978, he was elected to the Académie Française. Read more
18 Aug 1908: Olav H. Hauge, Norwegian poet and gardener (died 1994) Olav Håkonson Hauge was a Norwegian horticulturist, translator and poet. Read more
18 Aug 1908: Bill Merritt, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster (died 1977) William Edward Merritt was a New Zealand Test cricketer who played for Canterbury and Northamptonshire, and a rugby league footballer who played for Canterbury, Wigan and Halifax. Read more
18 Aug 1906: Marcel Carné, French director and screenwriter (died 1996) Marcel Albert Carné was a French film director. A key figure in the poetic realism movement, Carné's best known films include Port of Shadows (1938), Le Jour Se Lève (1939), Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) and Children of Paradise (1945); the latter has been cited as one of the great films of all time. Read more
18 Aug 1906: Curtis Jones, American blues pianist and singer (died 1971) Curtis Jones was an American blues pianist. Read more
18 Aug 1905: Enoch Light, American bandleader, violinist, and recording engineer (died 1978) Enoch Henry Light was an American classically trained violinist, danceband leader, and recording engineer. As the leader of various dance bands that recorded as early as March 1927 and continuing through at least 1940, Light and his band primarily worked in various hotels in New York. For a time in 1928 he also led a band in Paris. In the 1930s Light also studied conducting with the French conductor Maurice Frigara in Paris. Read more
18 Aug 1904: Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (died 1996) Francis Factor, also known as Max Factor Jr., was an American businessman who was president of the Max Factor Cosmetics empire. Read more
18 Aug 1903: Lucienne Boyer, French singer (died 1983) Lucienne Boyer was a French entertainer and musician, best known for her song "Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix. According to The New York Times, she "reigned as queen of Paris nightlife during the 1930s". Read more
18 Aug 1902: Adamson-Eric, Estonian painter (died 1968) Erich Carl Hugo Adamson was an Estonian artist who worked mainly within the medium of painting in applied art. Read more
18 Aug 1902: Margaret Murie, American environmentalist and author (died 2003) Margaret Elizabeth Thomas "Mardy" Murie was an American naturalist, writer, adventurer, and conservationist. Dubbed the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement" by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, she helped in the passage of the Wilderness Act, and was instrumental in creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the recipient of the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States. Read more
18 Aug 1900: Ruth Bonner, Soviet Communist activist, sentenced to a labor camp during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge (died 1987) Ruf Grigorievna Bonner, also known as Ruth Bonner, was a Soviet Communist activist who spent eight years in a labor camp during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. She was the mother of the human rights activist Yelena Bonner and the mother-in-law of physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. Read more
18 Aug 1900: Ruth Norman, American religious leader (died 1993) Ruth E. Norman, also known as Uriel, was an American religious leader who co-founded the Unarius Academy of Science, based in Southern California. Raised in California, Norman received little education and worked from an early age in a variety of jobs. In the 1940s, she developed an interest in psychic phenomena and past-life regression. These pursuits led to her introduction to Ernest Norman, a self-described psychic, in 1954. He engaged in channeling, past-life regression, and attempts at communication with extraterrestrials. She married Ernest, her fourth husband, in the mid-1950s. Together they published several books about his revelations and formed Unarius, an organization which later became known as the Unarius Academy of Science, to popularize his teachings. The couple discussed numerous details about their alleged past lives and spiritual visits to other planets, forming a mythology from these accounts. Read more
18 Aug 1898: Clemente Biondetti, Italian race car driver (died 1955) Clemente Biondetti was an Italian auto racing driver. Born into a working-class family, Biondetti raced motorcycles before turning to automobiles where he had greater success. Read more
18 Aug 1896: Jack Pickford, Canadian-American actor and director (died 1933) John Charles Smith, known professionally as Jack Pickford, was a Canadian-American actor, film director, and producer. He was the younger brother of actresses Mary and Lottie Pickford. Read more
18 Aug 1893: Burleigh Grimes, American baseball player and manager (died 1985) Burleigh Arland Grimes was an American professional baseball player and manager, and the last major league pitcher who was officially permitted to throw the spitball. Grimes made the most of this advantage, as well as his unshaven, menacing presence on the mound, which earned him the nickname "Ol' Stubblebeard." In his career, Grimes won 270 games, with 190 of them occurring in the 1920s, the most for all pitchers in the decade. He pitched in the World Series four times in his nineteen-season career and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. A decade earlier, he had been inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. Read more
18 Aug 1893: Ernest MacMillan, Canadian conductor and composer (died 1973) Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan was a Canadian conductor, composer and organist. He was Canada's only "Musical Knight", and is widely regarded as being Canada's pre-eminent musician from the 1920s through the 1950s. His contributions to the development of music in Canada were sustained and varied, as conductor, performer, composer, administrator, lecturer, adjudicator, writer, humourist, and statesman. Read more
18 Aug 1890: Walther Funk, German economist and politician, Reich Minister of Economics, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (died 1960) Walther Immanuel Funk was a German economist, Nazi official and convicted war criminal who served as Reichsminister for the Economy from 1938 to 1945 and president of the Reichsbank from 1939 to 1945. Funk oversaw the mobilization of the economy for Germany's rearmament and World War II, and the expropriation of assets of victims from Nazi concentration camps. He was convicted for crimes against humanity by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Read more
18 Aug 1887: John Anthony Sydney Ritson, English rugby player, mines inspector, engineer and professor of mining (died 1957) John Anthony Sydney Ritson DSO & Bar, was an English mines inspector and engineer who became professor of mining at Leeds University and at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London. In his early life he was a rugby union player of note playing international rugby for both England and the British and Irish Lions, and was a member of the first ever English Grand Slam winning side. During the First World War he served in the Durham Light Infantry and later commanded a battalion of the Royal Scots. Read more
18 Aug 1885: Nettie Palmer, Australian poet and critic (died 1964) Janet Gertrude "Nettie" Palmer was an Australian poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic of her day. She corresponded with women writers and collated the Centenary Gift Book which gathered together writing by Victorian women. Read more
18 Aug 1879: Alexander Rodzyanko, Russian general (died 1970) Alexander Pavlovich Rodzyanko was an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and lieutenant-general and a corps commander of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. He also competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Read more
18 Aug 1870: Lavr Kornilov, Russian general and explorer (died 1918) Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov was a Russian military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. He served as Supreme Commander of the Russian Army and as the military leader of the Whites in the Russian Civil War. He is particularly remembered for the Kornilov Affair, an unsuccessful coup d’etat against the Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. The event became a significant turning point in the Russian Revolution, strengthening the Bolsheviks' position and influence. Read more
18 Aug 1869: Carl Rungius, German-American painter and educator (died 1959) Carl Clemens Moritz Rungius was a leading American wildlife artist. He was born in Germany though he immigrated to the United States and he spent his career painting in the western United States and Canada. Active primarily in the first half of the 20th century, he earned a reputation as the most important big game painter and the first career wildlife artist in North America. Read more
18 Aug 1866: Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (died 1911) Asaf Jah VI, also known as Sir Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Siddiqi, was the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad. He ruled Hyderabad State, one of the princely states of India, between 1869 and 1911. Read more
18 Aug 1857: Libert H. Boeynaems, Belgian-American bishop and missionary (died 1926) Libert H. Boeynaems, formally Libert Hubert John Louis Boeynaems was a Belgian Catholic priest who served as the fourth vicar apostolic of the Vicariate Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands – now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. Read more
18 Aug 1856: Ahad Ha'am, Hebrew essayist and journalist and pre-state Zionist thinker (died 1927) Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg, primarily known by his Hebrew name and pen name Ahad Ha'am, was a Hebrew journalist and essayist, and one of the foremost pre-state Zionist thinkers. He is known as the founder of cultural Zionism. With his vision of a Jewish "spiritual center" in Eretz Israel, his views regarding the purpose of a Jewish state contrasted with those of prominent figures within the Zionist movement such as Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. Unlike Herzl, Ahad Ha'am strived for "a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews". Read more
18 Aug 1855: Alfred Wallis, English painter and illustrator (died 1942) Alfred Wallis was a British artist and marine stores dealer. He began painting at the age of 70, in 1925, using household paint on scraps of cardboard. Having lived by the sea all his life, and no artistic training, he painted port landscapes and shipping scenes in a naïve style. He achieved little commercial success, although his work was championed by progressive artists such as Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood. Read more
18 Aug 1841: William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1919) William Halford was a sailor, and later an officer, in the United States Navy. He also received the Medal of Honor. Read more
18 Aug 1834: Marshall Field, American businessman, founded Marshall Field's (died 1906) Marshall Field was an American entrepreneur and the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores. Read more
18 Aug 1831: Ernest Noel, Scottish businessman and politician (died 1931) Ernest Noel, FGS was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish seat of Dumfries Burghs from 1874 to 1886. He was chairman of the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company from 1880, during the construction of a new suburb for the working classes in Wood Green which was named "Noel Park" in his honour. Read more
18 Aug 1830: Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria from 1848-1916 (died 1916) Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his death in 1916. In the early part of his reign, his realms and territories were referred to as the Austrian Empire, but in 1867 they were reconstituted as the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866, he was also president of the German Confederation. Read more
18 Aug 1822: Isaac P. Rodman, American general and politician (died 1862) Isaac Peace Rodman was a Rhode Island banker, politician, and a Union Army brigadier general in the American Civil War, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam. Read more
18 Aug 1819: Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (died 1876) Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova of Russia was the daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and sister of Alexander II. In 1839, she married Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg. She was an art collector and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. Read more
18 Aug 1807: B. T. Finniss, Australian politician, 1st Premier of South Australia (died 1893) Boyle Travers Finniss was the first premier of South Australia, serving from 24 October 1856 to 20 August 1857. Read more
18 Aug 1803: Nathan Clifford, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 19th United States Attorney General (died 1881) Nathan Clifford was an American statesman, diplomat and jurist. Read more

Notable Deaths on 18 August

18 Aug 2024: Ruth Johnson Colvin, American author and educator, founded ProLiteracy Worldwide (born 1916) Ruth Johnson Colvin was an American philanthropist who was the founder of the non-profit organization Literacy Volunteers of America, now called ProLiteracy Worldwide in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in December 2006. Read more
18 Aug 2024: Alain Delon, French-Swiss actor (born 1935) Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was a French actor, film producer, screenwriter, singer, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the late 1950s to the late 1980s, and became an international sex symbol. He is regarded as one of the most well-known figures in French cinema. His style, looks, and roles, which made him an international icon, earned him enduring popularity. Read more
18 Aug 2024: Phil Donahue, American talk show host and producer (born 1935) Phillip John Donahue was an American media personality, writer, film producer, and the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, later known simply as Donahue, was the first popular talk show to feature a format that included audience participation. The show had a 29-year run on national television that began in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967 and ended in New York City in 1996. Read more
18 Aug 2023: Lolita, the second-oldest orca in captivity (born ca. 1966) Lolita, also called Tokitae or Toki for short, was a captive female orca of the southern resident population captured from the wild in September 1970 and displayed at the Miami Seaquarium in Florida. She was retired from performing and taken off public display in 2022, and subsequently died in August 2023. At the time of her death, Lolita was the second-oldest orca in captivity after Corky at SeaWorld San Diego. Read more
18 Aug 2023: Al Quie, American politician, 35th Governor of Minnesota (born 1923) Albert Harold "Al" Quie was an American politician and farmer from Minnesota. Quie served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Minnesota's 1st congressional district from 1958 to 1979 and as the 35th governor of Minnesota from 1979 to 1983. Read more
18 Aug 2020: Ben Cross, English stage and film actor (born 1947) Harry Bernard Cross was an English actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire and for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical Chicago. Read more
18 Aug 2018: Denis Edozie, Nigerian Supreme Court judge (born 1935) Dennis Edozie was a Nigerian jurist who was Judge of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from 2003 until his retirement in 2005. Read more
18 Aug 2018: Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (born 1938) Kofi Atta Annan was a Ghanaian diplomat and statesman who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela. Read more
18 Aug 2017: Bruce Forsyth, English television presenter and entertainer (born 1928) Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, also known as Brucie, was a British entertainer and television personality whose career spanned over 75 years. His appeal stemmed from his showmanship, quick wit, and ability to connect with audiences, a talent honed during years on the post-war variety circuit. His legacy is marked by a transition from traditional music hall performance to the evolving world of television. Read more
18 Aug 2017: Zoe Laskari, Greek actress and beauty pageant winner (born 1944) Zoe Laskari (Greek: Ζωή Λάσκαρη, pronounced [zoˈi ˈlaskari]; 12 December 1944 – 18 August 2017 was a Greek actress and beauty pageant titleholder. After being crowned Star Hellas 1959 and representing Greece at Miss Universe 1959, where she was placed in the top-15, she switched to acting, where she had a brilliant career. She is considered one of the biggest stars of Greek cinema. Read more
18 Aug 2016: Ernst Nolte, German historian (born 1923) Ernst Nolte was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism. Originally trained in philosophy, he was professor emeritus of modern history at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 until his 1991 retirement. He was previously a professor at the University of Marburg from 1965 to 1973. He was best known for his seminal work Fascism in Its Epoch, which received widespread acclaim when it was published in 1963. Nolte was a prominent academic from the early 1960s and was involved in many controversies related to the interpretation of the history of fascism and communism, including the Historikerstreit in the late 1980s. In later years, Nolte focused on Islamism and "Islamic fascism". Read more
18 Aug 2015: Khaled al-Asaad, Syrian archaeologist and author (born 1932) Khaled Mohamad al-Asaad was a Syrian archaeologist who was head of antiquities in the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He held this position for over forty years. Al-Asaad was publicly beheaded by the Islamic State on 18 August 2015, at the age of 83. Read more
18 Aug 2015: Roger Smalley, English-Australian pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1943) John Roger Smalley was an Anglo-Australian composer, pianist and conductor. Professor Smalley was a senior honorary research fellow at the School of Music, University of Western Australia in Perth and honorary research associate at the University of Sydney. Read more
18 Aug 2015: Suvra Mukherjee, wife of Indian president Pranab Mukherjee (born 1940) Suvra Mukherjee was the First Lady of India serving from the year 2012 until her death in 2015. Read more
18 Aug 2015: Louis Stokes, American lawyer and politician (born 1925) Louis Stokes was an American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician. He served 15 terms in the United States House of Representatives – representing the east side of Cleveland – and was the first African American congressman elected in the state of Ohio. He was one of the Cold War era chairmen of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, headed the Congressional Black Caucus, and was the first African American on the United States House Committee on Appropriations. Read more
18 Aug 2015: Bud Yorkin, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1926) Alan David "Bud" Yorkin was an American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, and actor. Read more
18 Aug 2014: Gordon Faber, American soldier and politician, 39th Mayor of Hillsboro, Oregon (born 1930) Gordon C. Faber was an American politician and businessman in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Pennsylvania, he grew up in Hillsboro, Oregon. He joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and was a small business owner before becoming a real estate agent and entering politics. He served on Hillsboro's budget committee and city council before serving two terms as mayor from 1993 to 2001. The Gordon Faber Recreation Complex in the city's northeast corner is named in his honor. Read more
18 Aug 2014: Jim Jeffords, American captain, lawyer, and politician (born 1934) James Merrill Jeffords was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. Originally a Republican, he served as a member of the Vermont Senate from 1967 to 1969 and Vermont Attorney General 1969 to 1973. He lost the 1972 Republican primary for governor of Vermont, but in 1974 he won Vermont's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives. He served in the US House from 1975 to 1989, and in 1988 won election to the United States Senate. In 2001, Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent and began caucusing with the senate's Democrats. Jeffords served in the Senate from 1989 until 2007. Read more
18 Aug 2014: Levente Lengyel, Hungarian chess player (born 1933) Levente Lengyel was a Hungarian chess player, who gained the Grandmaster title in 1964. Read more
18 Aug 2014: Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (born 1918) Dominick George "Don" Pardo Jr. was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. Read more
18 Aug 2013: Josephine D'Angelo, American baseball player (born 1924) Josephine "Jo Jo" D'Angelo was an American baseball left fielder who played from 1943 through 1944 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 0 in (152 cm), 135 lb, she batted and threw right-handed. Read more
18 Aug 2013: Jean Kahn, French lawyer and activist (born 1929) Jean Salomon Kahn was a French Jewish community leader, human rights activist, and lawyer. Kahn served as the President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) from 1989 to 1995, as well as the CRIF's vice president from 1983 to 1985. He later served as the President of the European Jewish Congress and the Vice President of the World Jewish Congress. Kahn also headed the Central Consistory of France from 1995 to 2008. Read more
18 Aug 2013: Albert Murray, American author and critic (born 1916) Albert L. Murray was an American literary and music critic, novelist, essayist, and biographer. His books include The Omni-Americans, South to a Very Old Place, and Stomping the Blues. Read more
18 Aug 2012: Harrison Begay, American painter (born 1917) Harrison Begay, also known as Haashké yah Níyá was a renowned Diné (Navajo) painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Begay specialized in watercolors, gouache, and silkscreen prints. At the time of his death in 2012, he was the last living, former student of Dorothy Dunn and Geronima C. Montoya at the Santa Fe Indian School. His work has won multiple awards and is exhibited in museums and private collections worldwide and he was among the most famous Diné artists of his generation. Read more
18 Aug 2012: John Kovatch, American football player (born 1920) John George Kovatch Jr. was an American professional football end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and the Green Bay Packers. He was born in South Bend, Indiana. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame and was selected in the 13th round of the 1942 NFL draft. Read more
18 Aug 2012: Scott McKenzie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1939) Scott McKenzie was an American singer and songwriter who recorded the 1967 hit single "San Francisco ". Read more
18 Aug 2012: Ra. Ki. Rangarajan, Indian journalist and author (born 1927) Rayampettai Krishnamacharya Rangarajan, popularly known as Ra Ki, was a Tamil journalist and prolific author of novels, short stories, essays, translations and other works. Rangarajan wrote under 10 pen names including: Mohini for historical novels, T. Duraisami for family dramas, Surya for youthful romance, Krishnakumar for mysteries, K. Malathi for postal-related stories, Mulri, Vinodh, Hamsa and Avittam for another genres. Read more
18 Aug 2012: Jesse Robredo, Filipino public servant and politician, 23rd Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (born 1958) Jesus "Jesse" Manalastas Robredo was a Filipino politician who served as 23rd Secretary of the Interior and Local Government in the administration of President Benigno Aquino III from 2010 until his death in 2012. Robredo was a member of the Liberal Party. Read more
18 Aug 2010: Hal Connolly, American hammer thrower and coach (born 1931) Harold Vincent "Hal" Connolly was an American athlete and hammer thrower from Somerville, Massachusetts. He won a gold medal in the hammer throw at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Connolly became the first American to throw a hammer more than 200 feet. He set his first of six world records just prior to the 1956 Olympics, and held the world record for nearly 10 years. Read more
18 Aug 2010: Benjamin Kaplan, American scholar and jurist (born 1911) Benjamin Kaplan was an American copyright and procedure scholar and jurist. He was also notable as "one of the principal architects" of the Nuremberg trials. And as Reporter to the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, he played a pivotal role in the 1966 revisions to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, which transformed class action practice in the U.S. Read more
18 Aug 2009: Kim Dae-jung, South Korean lieutenant and politician, 15th President of South Korea, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1925) Kim Dae-jung was a South Korean politician, activist, and statesman who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. Read more
18 Aug 2009: Rose Friedman, Ukrainian-American economist and author (born 1910) Rose Director Friedman ; born Rose Director was a free-market economist and co-founder of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. Read more
18 Aug 2009: Robert Novak, American journalist and author (born 1931) Robert David Sanders Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report, which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a biweekly newsletter, in 1967. Read more
18 Aug 2007: Michael Deaver, American soldier and politician, White House Deputy Chief of Staff (born 1938) Michael Keith Deaver was a member of President Ronald Reagan's White House staff who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under James Baker III and Donald Regan from January 1981 to May 1985. Read more
18 Aug 2007: Magdalen Nabb, English author (born 1947) Magdalen Nabb was a British author, best known for the Marshal Guarnaccia detective novels. Read more
18 Aug 2006: Fernand Gignac, French Canadian singer and actor (born 1934). Fernand Gignac was a French Canadian singer and actor. Read more
18 Aug 2006: Ken Kearney, Australian rugby player (born 1924) Kenneth Howard "Killer" Kearney was an Australian rugby footballer – a dual-code international player – and a rugby league coach. He represented the Wallabies in seven Tests, and the Kangaroos in thirty-one Test matches and World Cup games. He captained Australia in nine rugby league Test matches in 1956 and 1957. He was a hooker and captain-coach with the St. George Dragons in the first half of their eleven-year consecutive premiership winning run from 1956 to 1966. He is considered one of Australia's finest footballers of the 20th century. Read more
18 Aug 2005: Chri$ Ca$h, American wrestler (born 1982) Christopher Jonathan Bauman Jr. was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Chri$ Ca$h. Bauman wrestled in many independent promotions, but is known for his time in Combat Zone Wrestling, where he was a CZW World Tag Team Champion. On August 18, 2005, Bauman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Read more
18 Aug 2004: Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (born 1922) Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 original film scores, as well as scores for nearly 80 television productions. For his work, he received an Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) and a Primetime Emmy Award. He also received seven Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Tony Award nominations. Read more
18 Aug 2004: Hiram Fong, American soldier and politician (born 1906) Hiram Leong Fong was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician from Hawaii. Born to a Cantonese immigrant sugar plantation worker, Fong was one of the first two senators for Hawaii after it became the 50th US state in 1959. He was the first Chinese American and first Asian American United States Senator, serving from 1959 to 1977, and to date he remains the only Republican U.S. senator from Hawaii. Read more
18 Aug 2003: Tony Jackson, English singer and bassist (born 1938) Anthony Paul Jackson was a British musician. He was known for being a member of the Merseybeat band The Searchers. Read more
18 Aug 2002: Dean Riesner, American actor and screenwriter (born 1918) Dean Riesner was an American film and television writer. Read more
18 Aug 2001: David Peakall, English chemist and toxicologist (born 1931) David Beaumont Peakall was an internationally recognised toxicologist. His research into the effects of DDE and DDT on eggshells contributed to the ban on DDT in the United States. He proved that the chemicals caused thinning of eggshells, leading to a reduction in the population of various bird species. He also pioneered research on the effects of PCBs on birds. Read more
18 Aug 1998: Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, Femina Miss India 1965 (born 1948) Persis Khambatta was an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder best remembered for playing Lieutenant Ilia in the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Read more
18 Aug 1994: Francis Raymond Shea, American bishop (born 1913) Francis Raymond Shea was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Evansville in Indiana from 1969 to 1989. Read more
18 Aug 1990: B. F. Skinner, American psychologist and philosopher, invented the Skinner box (born 1904) Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in 1974. Read more
18 Aug 1986: Harun Babunagari, Bangladeshi Islamic scholar and educationist (born 1902) Harun Babunagari was a Bangladeshi Deobandi Islamic scholar, Sufi, and an exegete of the Quran. He was the founder and first Principal of Al-Jamiatul Islamiah Azizul Uloom Babunagar, one of the oldest Qawmi madrasas in Bangladesh. Read more
18 Aug 1983: Nikolaus Pevsner, German-English historian and scholar (born 1902) Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner was a German-British historian who specialised in the areas of art and architecture. He is best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England (1951–1974), as well as his editorship of the Pelican History of Art. Read more
18 Aug 1981: Anita Loos, American author and screenwriter (born 1889) Corinne Anita Loos was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triangle Film Corporation. She is best known for her 1925 comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, her screenplay of the 1939 adaptation of The Women, and her 1951 Broadway adaptation of Colette's novella Gigi. Read more
18 Aug 1979: Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician (born 1913) Vasantrao Phulsingh Naik was an Indian politician, social reformer and Pioneer of Green, White Revolution and Guarantee Employment Scheme. He served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 until 1975. He is the longest serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Read more
18 Aug 1975: Odd Lindbäck-Larsen, Norwegian Army general and war historian (born 1897) Odd Lindbäck-Larsen was a Norwegian military officer and war historian. He participated in the Norwegian Campaign in Northern Norway during the Second World War as the chief-of-staff, under general Fleischer. He spent most of the war in Norwegian and German concentration camps. He continued his military career after the war, eventually with the rank of major general and military attaché in Stockholm. He wrote several books on Norwegian military history. Read more
18 Aug 1968: Arthur Marshall, American pianist and composer (born 1881) Arthur Owen Marshall was an American composer and performer of ragtime music from Missouri. He was a protege of famed ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Read more
18 Aug 1964: Hildegard Trabant, Berlin Wall victim (born 1927) Hildegard Johanna Maria Trabant was an East German woman who became the fiftieth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Trabant was shot and killed by East German border guards during a crossing attempt, one of only eight women victims of the Berlin Wall, and was the only escapee victim known to have a record of loyalty toward the East German regime. Read more
18 Aug 1961: Learned Hand, American lawyer, jurist, and philosopher (born 1872) Billings Learned Hand was an American jurist, lawyer, and judicial philosopher. He served as a federal trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1909 to 1924 and as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1924 to 1961. Read more
18 Aug 1952: Alberto Hurtado, Chilean priest, lawyer, and saint (born 1901) Alberto Hurtado, SJ, popularly known as Padre Hurtado, was a Chilean Jesuit priest, lawyer, social worker, and writer of Basque ancestry. He founded the Hogar de Cristo foundation in 1944. Read more
18 Aug 1950: Julien Lahaut, Belgian soldier and politician (born 1884) Julien-Victor Lahaut was a Belgian politician and trade unionist who served as chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium from 1945 to 1950. An important figure during the German occupation of 1940–44, he became a vocal advocate for the abolition of the Belgian monarchy during the post-war Royal Question. His assassination in August 1950, at the height of the crisis, was linked to anti-communist and royalist elements inside the Belgian intelligence services by a team of historians in 2015; however, the murder remains officially unsolved. Read more
18 Aug 1949: Paul Mares, American trumpet player and bandleader (born 1900) Paul Mares, was an American early dixieland jazz cornet and trumpet player, and leader of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Read more
18 Aug 1946: Che Yaoxian, Chinese communist (born 1894) Che Yaoxian was a member of the Chinese Communist Party and an officer in the Sichuan army. In 1921, after meeting a local preacher in Jianyang, he converted to Christianity. In 1927, he represented Sichuan at the East Asian Christian Association conference in Shanghai. Sometime in the 1930s, he founded the anti-imperialist Chengdu Christian Improvement Association, which advocated for "self-nourishing" and "self-propagation". However, he also experienced crises of faith, such as in 1928, when he lamented in a poem titled "Oath to Myself": "Religion merely deceives foolish people." Read more
18 Aug 1946: Luo Shiwen, Chinese communist (born 1904) Luo Shiwen was a Chinese communist. Born in Weiyuan County, Sichuan, he became interested in communism during the May Fourth Movement before joining the Chinese Socialist Youth League in 1923 and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925. After three years in the Soviet Union, he returned to China in 1928 and was dispatched to advise General Kuang Jixun when his forces declared themselves part of the Red Army. After several victories against the Kuomintang (KMT), the communist forces were defeated at Kaijiang, and Luo was subsequently sent to provide training in the Sichuan–Shanxi Soviet. Read more
18 Aug 1945: Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian activist and politician (born 1897) Subhas Chandra Bose was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, antisemitism, and military failure. The honorific Netaji was first applied to Bose in Germany in early 1942—by the Indian soldiers of the Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureau for India in Berlin. It is now used throughout India. Read more
18 Aug 1944: Ernst Thälmann, German soldier and politician (born 1886) Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann was a German communist politician, revolutionary, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. Read more
18 Aug 1943: Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Azerbaijani general (born 1865) Ali Agha Ismail Agha oghlu Shikhlinski was an Azerbaijani lieutenant-general of the Imperial Russian Army, Deputy Minister of Defense and General of the Artillery of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and a Soviet military officer. Read more
18 Aug 1942: Erwin Schulhoff, Austro-Czech composer and pianist (born 1894) Erwin Schulhoff was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and whose works have been rarely noted or performed beyond Czechoslovakia until the 1980s. Read more
18 Aug 1940: Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (born 1875) Walter Percy Chrysler was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, automotive industry executive, and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation. Read more
18 Aug 1919: Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company (born 1841) Joseph Emm Seagram was a Canadian distillery founder, politician, philanthropist, and major owner of thoroughbred racehorses. Read more
18 Aug 1890: Mother Solomon, Wyandot activist (born 1816) Margaret Grey Eyes Solomon, better known as Mother Solomon, was a Wyandot nanny and cultural activist. Solomon was born along Owl Creek in Marion County, Ohio, to a Wyandot chief father. In 1822, her family moved to the Big Spring Reservation in Wyandot County, where elders relayed oral tradition to her. She learned housekeeping and English at a mission school and began attending the Wyandot Mission Church. Solomon married David Young, a Wyandot man, in 1833 and had several children with him, some of whom died before 1843. That year, the Indian Removal Act forced the Wyandots to move to Kansas. Illness and poor living conditions were initially widespread in the new community. Solomon had more children in Kansas, though by 1860, her husband and remaining children had died. Read more
18 Aug 1886: Eli Whitney Blake, American inventor, invented the Mortise lock (born 1795) Eli Whitney Blake, Sr. was an American inventor, best known for his mortise lock and stone-crushing machine, the latter of which earned him a place into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Read more
18 Aug 1852: James Finlayson, Scottish Quaker (born 1772) James Finlayson was a Scottish Quaker who, in effect, brought the Industrial Revolution to Tampere, Finland, founding in 1820 the Finlayson company. Read more
18 Aug 1850: Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (born 1799) Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, described as a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. Read more
18 Aug 1842: Louis de Freycinet, French explorer and navigator (born 1779) Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was a French Navy officer. Following the 1800–1803 Baudin expedition to Australia, he published in 1811 the first map to show the full Australian coastline. He later circumnavigated the Earth, and was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1825. Read more
18 Aug 1823: André-Jacques Garnerin, French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute (born 1769) André-Jacques Garnerin was a French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France. Read more
18 Aug 1815: Chauncey Goodrich, American lawyer and politician, 8th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut (born 1759) Chauncey Goodrich was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut who represented that state in the United States Congress as both a senator and a representative. Read more

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