Famous Birthdays on June 18

Barack Hussein Obama was a Kenyan senior governmental economist and the father of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. He is a central figure of his son's memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995). Obama married in 1954 and had two children with his first wife, Kezia. He was selected for a special program to attend college in the United States and studied at the University of Hawaii where he met Ann Dunham, whom he married in 1961 following the conception of his son, Barack. Obama and Dunham divorced three years later. Obama then went to Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned an MA in economics, and returned to Kenya in 1964. He saw his son Barack once more, when his son was about 10.

George Lawrence Mikan Jr., nicknamed "Mr. Basketball", was an American professional basketball player for the Chicago American Gears of the National Basketball League (NBL) and the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBL, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Invariably playing with thick, round spectacles, the 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m), 245 lb (111 kg) Mikan was one of the pioneers of professional basketball. Through his size and play, he redefined basketball as a game dominated in his day by "big men". His prolific rebounding, shot blocking, and ability to shoot over smaller defenders with his ambidextrous hook shot all helped to change the game. He also used the underhanded free-throw shooting technique long before Rick Barry made it his signature shot.

Tara Platt is an American actress and author who has provided voices for dozens of English-language versions of Japanese anime films, television series and video games. Her notable roles in anime include Temari in Naruto and Reina in Rave Master. She also voices Kali Belladonna in RWBY, Mitsuru Kirijo and Elizabeth in Persona 3, Eva Heinemann in Monster, Edelgard von Hresvelg in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Miriel & Flavia in Fire Emblem: Awakening, Anna Williams from the Tekken series, as well as characters in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Saints Row: The Third, Bayonetta 2, Setsuka from Soulcalibur series, League of Legends, and Yuri Watanabe / Wraith in the Marvel's Spider-Man series by Insomniac Games.

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was a British statesman. As secretary to the Viceroy in Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform, and he ended his life an isolated and unpopular figure.

Martin St. Louis is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the head coach for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). An undrafted player, St. Louis played a total of 1,134 games, scoring 391 goals and 1,033 points in an NHL career that began with the Calgary Flames in 1998 and ended with the New York Rangers in 2015. He is best remembered for having played with the Tampa Bay Lightning and was a member of the Lightning's 2004 Stanley Cup championship team. St. Louis also briefly played with HC Lausanne of the Swiss National League A. He was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, his first year of eligibility. St. Louis is widely considered one of the best undrafted players of all time. On January 17, 2017, St. Louis' number 26 jersey became the first to be retired in Lightning history.

Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 7 in men's singles by the ATP, attained in July 2007. Gasquet won 16 singles titles on the ATP Tour, and earned over 600 career match wins. His best performances in major singles tournaments were three semifinal appearances, two at the Wimbledon Championships and one at the US Open. His best performance in ATP Masters 1000 tournaments tournaments was runner-up finishes in Hamburg in 2005 and Toronto in 2006 and 2012. Gasquet won the mixed doubles title at the 2004 French Open, partnering Tatiana Golovin, and an Olympic bronze medal in men's doubles at the 2012 London Olympics, partnering Julien Benneteau. Gasquet was best known for his elegant groundstrokes and his one-handed backhand.

Richard Alfonso Martinez, better known by the stage name Oz Fox, is the lead guitarist of the Christian glam metal band Stryper. Martinez' high school friends called him Oz in honor of Ozzy Osbourne due to his ability to emulate the vocals of Osbourne while playing Black Sabbath covers in his pre-Stryper days. He was recruited by the Sweet brothers in 1983 to form what would become Stryper. Tim Gaines joined the band in 1983 after leaving Los Angeles-based hard rock band Stormer. As a founding member of the band, Fox recorded and toured with Stryper until the band's first break up in 1992 but has since rejoined the band.

Efraín Huerta Roma was a Mexican poet and journalist. Born and raised in the state of Guanajuato, he moved to Mexico City initially to start a career in art. Unable to enter the Academy of San Carlos, he attended the Escuela Preparatoria Nacional, where he met writers such as Rafael Solana, Carmen Toscano and Octavio Paz. He had been writing poetry since he was young, but initially opted to attend law school; however, when he published his first book of poems, he left it to pursue writing full-time. As a poet, he published regularly from the 1930s to the 1980s, and as a journalist collaborated with over twenty newspapers and journals, under his own name and using pseudonyms. He was also active politically, a communist and Stalin supporter through his life with his social and political ideas finding their way into his writing. Poetically, he is part of the Taller generation of Mexican poets, although his development was a bit different from others in this group. Near the end of his career, his work had developed a colloquial style, including work focusing on Mexico City and creating a new form called a “poemínimo.”

Sir Geoffrey William Hill was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be among the most distinguished poets of his generation and was called the "greatest living poet in the English language". From 2010 to 2015 he held the position of Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford. Following his receiving the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in 2009 for his Collected Critical Writings, and the publication of Broken Hierarchies , Hill is recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry and criticism in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Peter Altmaier is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Acting Minister of Finance from 2017 to 2018 and as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2018 to 2021. He previously served as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from May 2012 to December 2013 and Head of the German Chancellery and as Federal Minister for Special Affairs from December 2013 to March 2018. Altmaier is widely seen as one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's most trusted advisors and advocates for her more centrist wing of the CDU. He is known for his "compromising style" and was described in 2017 as "the most powerful man in Berlin".

Prince Ivan Yurievich Trubetskoy was a Russian field marshal, promoted in 1728. The son of Yuriy Trubetskoy, as a member of the House of Trubetskoy, he was a member of the inner circle of Tsar Peter I of Russia of the House of Romanov. Made a boyar in 1692, Trubetskoy commanded part of the Russian fleet during the Azov campaigns in 1696. In 1699, he was named governor of Novgorod. Trubetskoy ordered surrender during the Battle of Narva in 1700. He was captured and held prisoner in Sweden until exchanged in 1718. At the moment of death he was the last living boyar in Russia. Elisabeth made him a member of the renewed Senate.

Chris Van Allsburg is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.

Jarosław Aleksander Kaczyński is a Polish politician. He co-founded the Law and Justice (PiS) party in 2001 with his twin brother, Lech Kaczyński, and has served as its leader since 2003. He served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2006 to 2007, and has twice held the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, first from 2020 to 2022, and a second time from June to November 2023. He is considered to have been the éminence grise of Poland, when PiS formed the government in 2005–2007 and again in 2015–2023, with direct political influence over the prime ministers Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Beata Szydło and Mateusz Morawiecki.

Kirsnick Khari Ball, known professionally as Takeoff, was an American rapper. He was best known as the youngest member of the hip hop group Migos along with his uncle Quavo and close friend Offset. The group scored multiple top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 including "MotorSport", "Stir Fry", "Walk It Talk It", and "Bad and Boujee", the last of which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, although he was notably omitted from the song. He also received two Grammy Award nominations as a member of the group. On November 1, 2022, Takeoff was fatally shot in Houston, Texas.

Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".

Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun is an American businessman, investor, former talent manager, and record executive. He is credited with having discovered and managed Canadian singer Justin Bieber in 2008 and signed American singer Ariana Grande to his management agency in 2012, whose success led to the establishment of Braun's RBMG Records and later, SB Projects, which were both later acquired by Hybe Corporation. Braun has also worked in career management for artists including Kanye West, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Ozuna, Dan + Shay, and the Kid Laroi, among others. He retired from artist management in 2024.

Russell Ash was the British author of the Top 10 of Everything series of books, as well as Great Wonders of the World, Incredible Comparisons and many other reference, art and humour titles, most notably his series of books on strange-but-true names, Potty, Fartwell & Knob, Busty, Slag and Nob End and Big Pants, Burpy and Bumface. Once described as 'the human Google', his obituary in The Times stated that 'In the age of the internet, it takes tenacity and idiosyncratic intelligence to make a living from purveying trivial information. Russell Ash did just that'.

John Gavin Scott was an English organist and choirmaster who reached the highest levels of his profession on both sides of the Atlantic. He directed the Choir of St Paul's Cathedral in London from 1990 to 2004. He then directed the Choir of Men and Boys of Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City until his death at age 59. Whilst training countless young musicians, he maintained an active career as an international concert performer and recording artist, and was acclaimed as "the premier English organist of his generation".

Sherry Turkle is an American sociologist. She is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She obtained a BA in social studies and later a PhD in sociology and personality psychology at Harvard University. She now focuses her research on psychoanalysis and human-technology interaction. She has written several books focusing on the psychology of human relationships with technology, especially in the realm of how people relate to computational objects. Her memoir 'Empathy Diaries' received excellent critical reviews.