Famous Birthdays on March 18

Arthur Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party from May 1937 to October 1940. He is known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.

John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views shifted, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, and distinguished himself as an outspoken defender of slavery in the United States. Calhoun saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860 and 1861. Calhoun was the first of two vice presidents to resign from the position, the second being Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973.

Thomas Ian Griffith is an American actor, screenwriter and producer. His best-known roles include Terry Silver in John G. Avildsen's 1989 martial arts film The Karate Kid Part III, which he later reprised in the fourth through sixth and final season of the Netflix television series Cobra Kai (2021–2025), as well as voicing his character in the video game Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising (2022); head vampire Jan Valek in John Carpenter's 1998 neo-Western action horror film Vampires; warrior Taligaro in Raffaella De Laurentiis' 1997 sword and sorcery picture Kull the Conqueror; recurring character Larry Sawyer in the first season of The WB's teen drama series One Tree Hill (2004); and Catlin Ewing in NBC's soap opera Another World from 1984–1987. He also portrayed screen legend Rock Hudson in ABC's 1990 television biopic Rock Hudson, and serial killer Doug Clark in CBS's 2000 television biopic A Vision of Murder: The Story of Donielle.

Zdeno Chára is a Slovak former professional ice hockey player. As a defenceman, he played 24 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins, and Washington Capitals between 1997 and 2022. Standing 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) tall, Chára is the tallest person ever to play in the NHL, earning him the nickname "Big Z". Internationally, he played for the Slovakia men's national team and won two silver medals at the Ice Hockey World Championships. At the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, he won a silver medal playing for Team Europe. In 2025, he was inducted into both the IIHF Hall of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting". Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918, a week before the Armistice, at the age of 25.

William Richard Frisell is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant in the Downtown Scene in New York City, where he formed a long working relationship with composer and saxophonist John Zorn. He was also a longtime member of veteran drummer Paul Motian's groups from the early 1980s until Motian's death in 2011. Since the late 1990s, Frisell's output as a bandleader has also integrated prominent elements of folk, country, rock 'n' roll, and Americana. He holds six Grammy nominations and one win.

Christian Goldbach was a Prussian mathematician connected with some important research mainly in number theory; he also studied law and took an interest in and a role in the Russian court. After traveling around Europe in his early life, he landed in Russia in 1725 as a professor at the newly founded Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Goldbach jointly led the academy in 1737. However, he relinquished duties in the academy in 1742 and worked in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs until his death in 1764. He is remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture and the Goldbach–Euler theorem. He had a close friendship with famous mathematician Leonhard Euler, serving as inspiration for Euler's mathematical pursuits.

Miguel Poblet Orriols was a Spanish professional cyclist, who had over 200 professional victories from 1944 to 1962. He was the first Spanish rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, and in 1956 he became the first of only three riders to win stages in the three Grand Tours in the same year. He won the Milan–San Remo classic race on two occasions and took 26 stage wins in the three Grand Tours. His twenty-stage wins in the Giro d'Italia makes him the third most successful foreign rider in the "Giro" behind Eddy Merckx (25) and Roger De Vlaeminck (22). Poblet was of short stature who had great power, he was the first Spanish rider to be a specialist in one day races in an age when Spain only produced climbers. He had a lightning fast sprint, but could also climb well, taking the Spanish Mountain championships on three occasions and the mountainous Volta a Catalunya twice. His nickname whilst riding was "La Flecha Amarilla" due to the yellow kit of his Ignis team.

Jeffrey Vincent Mullins is an American former basketball player and coach. He played college basketball with the Duke Blue Devils and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the St. Louis Hawks and San Francisco/Golden State Warriors. He was a three-time NBA All-Star. Mullins served as the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 1985 to 1996, being named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 1988, and taking his team to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament three times. As a college player, he was the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Player of the Year and the ACC's athlete of the year (1963–64) and first-team All-ACC for three consecutive seasons. He was a consensus second-team All-American in 1964. His Duke teams twice reached the Final Four in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and he was selected to the All-Tournament Team in 1964. He scored 43 points in one NCAA tournament game.

Clement Hill was an Australian cricketer who played 49 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1896 and 1912. He captained the Australian team in ten Tests, winning five and losing five. A prolific run scorer, Hill scored 3,412 runs in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 39.21 per innings, including seven centuries. In 1902, Hill was the first batsman to make 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year, a feat that would not be repeated for 45 years. His innings of 365*, scored against New South Wales for South Australia in 1900–01, was a Sheffield Shield record for 27 years. The South Australian Cricket Association named a grandstand at the Adelaide Oval in his honour in 2003 and he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2005. Hill is regarded as one of the best batsman of his era.

Paul William Barry Marsden is a British writer, businessman and politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shrewsbury and Atcham from 1997 until 2005. He was most prominently known for his anti-war views and crossing the floor twice, from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in 2001 and returning to Labour in 2005. He instructed a solicitor in 2010 to begin action for phone hacking that allegedly took place back in 2003 by a newspaper. In 2012, Marsden was appointed to draft the parliamentary inquiry report into VIP security at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Marsden is currently Head of Quality & Assurance for Strabag UK working on the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP), £3 billion water pipeline project between the Lake District and Manchester.

Matthew Lombardi is a Canadian former professional ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames, Phoenix Coyotes, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks. Lombardi made his NHL debut in 2003 and was a member of the Flames' team that went to the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals. During his career he was plagued with injuries, suffering two significant concussions. Lombardi played for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championships, winning gold in 2007 and silver in 2009. While playing in Switzerland, he was named to Team Canada and won the 2015 Spengler Cup. He retired from playing hockey in 2016.

Suzanne Perlman was a Hungarian-Dutch visual artist known for her expressionist portraits and landscape paintings. Her bold use of colour has its origins in her early paintings of the tropical island of Curaçao, where she moved with her husband in 1940 to escape Nazi persecution. Her expressionist style developed under the tutelage of Austrian master Oskar Kokoschka in the late 1950s, with whom she worked in Salzburg in the 1960s. Reviewing a 1993 Exhibition as his Critic’s Choice in The Times, John Russell Taylor, art critic and author, wrote that "(Perlman) captures the particular feel of the place while abating none of her expressionist dash".

Rajeev Ram is an American former professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Ram is a six-time major champion, having won the 2020 Australian Open, the 2021 US Open, the 2022 US Open, and the 2023 US Open in men's doubles with Joe Salisbury, as well as Australian Open mixed doubles titles in 2019 and 2021 alongside Barbora Krejčíková. Ram has also won two Olympic silver medals, in mixed doubles with Venus Williams at the 2016 Olympics, and in doubles with Austin Krajicek at the 2024 Olympics.

Michael Bell, better known as Mike "Mad Dog" Bell, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a jobber throughout the 1990s. He also wrestled for Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), where he won the UPW Heavyweight Championship and served as a trainer, and the original Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He was the brother of Mark Bell and Chris Bell, director of the 2008 documentary, Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, and the 2015 follow up documentary, Prescription Thugs, in which Mike Bell's life and death by prescription drugs are explored.

Katherine Ruth Gallagher is an Australian politician who has been serving as the Minister for Finance, Minister for Women, Minister for the Public Service and Vice-President of the Executive Council in the Albanese Government since 2022 and since 2025 as Minister for Government Services. She also formerly served as the 6th Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory from 2011 to 2014. She has been a Senator for the Australian Capital Territory since the 2019 federal election, as a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) having previously served in the Senate from 2015 to 2018.

Unita Zelma Blackwell was an American civil rights activist who was the first African-American woman to be elected mayor in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Blackwell was a project director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and helped organize voter drives for African Americans across Mississippi. She was also a leader of the US–China Peoples Friendship Association, a group dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States and China. She also served as an advisor to six US presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Susan Tyrrell was an American character actress. Tyrrell's career began in theater in New York City in the 1960s in Broadway and off Broadway productions. Her first film was Shoot Out (1971). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Oma in John Huston's Fat City (1972). In 1978, Tyrrell received the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Andy Warhol's Bad (1977). Her New York Times obituary described her as "a whiskey-voiced character actress (with) talent for playing the downtrodden, outré, and grotesque."

Lily Jane Collins is an English and American actress. Born in Guildford and raised in Los Angeles, she began performing on screen at the age of two in the BBC sitcom Growing Pains. In the late 2000s, she began acting and modelling more regularly, and gained recognition for her supporting role in the sports drama film The Blind Side (2009). She went on to star in several films, including the horror film Priest (2011), the thriller Abduction (2011), and the fantasy films Mirror Mirror (2012) and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013).