Famous Birthdays on May 15

John Andrew Smoltz, nicknamed "Smoltzie" and "Marmaduke", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1988 to 2009, all but the last year with the Atlanta Braves. An eight-time All-Star, Smoltz was part of a celebrated trio of starting pitchers, along with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who propelled Atlanta to perennial pennant contention in the 1990s, highlighted by a championship in the 1995 World Series. He won the National League (NL) Cy Young Award in 1996 after posting a record of 24–8, equaling the most victories by an NL pitcher since 1972. He also played for the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

Jerry Quarry, nicknamed "Irish" or "the Bellflower Bomber" or the "Great White Hope", was an American professional boxer and multiple heavyweight boxing title contender. During the peak of his career from 1968 to 1971, Quarry was a popular figure in boxing, featured on the cover of The Ring and other boxing magazines, as well as on hit TV shows. His most famous bouts were against Muhammad Ali. He is regarded as being one of the best heavyweight boxers never to win a title. He beat former world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson and top contenders Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, Brian London, Thad Spencer, Buster Mathis, Randy Neumann, Jack Bodell, Mac Foster and Eduardo Corletti. The damage he accumulated from lack of attention to defense against larger men at the top level, no head guard sparring, and attempted comebacks in 1977, 1983, and 1992 resulted in Quarry developing an unusually severe case of dementia pugilistica.

Justin Ernest George Morneau is a Canadian former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, and Chicago White Sox. At 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 220 pounds (100 kg), Morneau was drafted as a catcher by the Twins in 1999. He converted to first base in the minor leagues and made his MLB debut in 2003. Morneau held that position throughout his career and in 2007 became the first Twin since Gary Gaetti in 1987–1988 to hit 30 home runs in consecutive seasons.

Kathleen Sebelius is an American politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of health and human services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumental in overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Before becoming secretary, she served as the 44th governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the second woman to hold that office. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Sebelius was the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address and is chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association. She is CEO of Sebelius Resources LLC.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat, medical pioneer, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served as the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Lady Mary joined her husband on the Ottoman excursion, where she was to spend the next two years of her life. During her time there, Lady Mary wrote extensively on her experience as a woman in Ottoman Constantinople. After her return to England, Lady Mary devoted her attention to the upbringing of her family before dying of cancer in 1762.

Roderick Duane Smith is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, all with the Denver Broncos. He played college football for the Missouri Southern Lions and was signed by the Broncos as an undrafted free agent and played his entire career with the team. Following his final game in the NFL at the conclusion of the 2006 season, Smith's 849 career receptions and 11,389 receiving yards ranked him 11th and 17th all-time respectively. As of 2025's offseason, Smith ranks 35th and 40th all-time in receptions and receiving yards respectively. He is widely considered one of the greatest undrafted players in NFL history.

Dwayne Anthony De Rosario OOnt is a Canadian former professional soccer player who played as a forward or as an attacking midfielder. A versatile attacker, he played for the Toronto Lynx, FSV Zwickau and Richmond Kickers early in his career. He came to prominence in the 2000s playing in Major League Soccer for the San Jose Earthquakes, Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC, New York Red Bulls and D.C. United. A four-time MLS Cup champion, he also won the 2011 MLS Most Valuable Player award. He is the tenth-leading scorer in MLS history with 104 goals. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential Canadian players of all time.

Juan Nepomuceno Almonte Ramírez was a Mexican soldier, commander, minister of war, congressman, diplomat, presidential candidate, and regent. The natural son of Catholic cleric José María Morelos, a leading commander during the Mexican War of Independence, Almonte played an important role as a conservative in the Mexican Republic. He served as Minister of War during multiple administrations as well as in various diplomatic posts in the United States and in Europe. In 1840 he led government forces in an attempt to rescue president Anastasio Bustamante after the president was taken hostage by rebels in the National Palace. Almonte was minister to the United States in the years leading up to the Mexican–American War and lobbied against its interference in Texas, which Mexico considered a rebellious province. Almonte was a leading figure in conservative efforts to re-establish monarchy in Mexico, supporting the French imperial forces during the Second French intervention in Mexico and the establishment of the Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian I of Mexico. Almonte was serving as a diplomat in France when France withdrew military support of the Empire, which fell in 1867. He died two years later in 1869.

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Charles Jackson was an American competitive sport shooter. In his international career, he won numerous medals across three Summer Olympic Games, three ISSF World Shooting Championships, and two editions of the Pan American Games. He began shooting in the seventh grade and joined the rifle team at Brooklyn Technical High School in 1934. He competed in local and regional tournaments prior to World War II, during which he worked at the Sperry Corporation and later served as a bombardier in the Pacific Theater of Operations. His first international tournament was the 1948 Summer Olympics and his last was the 1956 edition, at which point he began a career in public service with the Central Intelligence Agency in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He stopped competing at the international level in 1957 and retired from the CIA at the end of 1974. After several years as an instructor and coach, he continued participating in smaller tournaments through the 1990s.

Ulrich Beck was a German sociologist, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world during his lifetime. His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined the terms "risk society" and "second modernity" or "reflexive modernization". He also tried to overturn national perspectives that predominated in sociological investigations with a cosmopolitanism that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the modern world. He was a professor at LMU Munich and also held appointments at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in Paris, and at the London School of Economics.

Adam John William Moffat is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder and spent the majority of his career playing in the various professional leagues in the United States. He attended Gryffe High School in Houston, Scotland before beginning his career in Scottish football with Ross County and Elgin City, Moffat has played in the United States since 2007, initially with Cleveland City Stars. He then played for Major League Soccer (MLS) teams Columbus Crew, Portland Timbers, Houston Dynamo and Seattle Sounders FC and FC Dallas prior to joining the New York Cosmos in 2015 and finishing his career with Sacramento Republic. He won the MLS Cup with Columbus in 2008.

Walter Edward "Turk" Broda was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. A goaltender, Broda played his entire career for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1936 and 1951, taking a hiatus from 1943 to 1946 to fight in the Second World War. The 1940-41 season saw him win his first Vezina Trophy with a GAA of 2.00 to go along with being named to the NHL First All-Star Team. The following season saw him backstop the team to the Stanley Cup championship, recording a shutout and a record of 8-5.

Daniel Patrick Pugh, known professionally as Dan Patrick, is an American sportscaster, radio personality, and actor. He hosts The Dan Patrick Show broadcast on radio on Premiere Networks and streaming on Peacock. He co-hosted NBC's Football Night in America and served as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He worked at ESPN for 18 years, where he often anchored the weeknight and Sunday 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter. He is unrelated to Bill Patrick, whom he often worked with on SportsCenter. He is also the host of the podcast "Dan Patrick Takes a Gamble", about sports wagering.

Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, commonly referred to by his initials JK, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th and 12th Vice President of Indonesia from 2004 to 2019, the only Vice President to serve two non-consecutive terms in office. He was the Golkar Party's presidential nominee in the 2009 presidential election. Before Kalla declared himself as the running mate for Joko Widodo in the 2014 presidential election, a 2012 poll placed his popularity among likely voters in the top three contenders for the presidency and ahead of his own party's nominee Aburizal Bakrie.

Rimas Kurtinaitis is a Lithuanian professional basketball coach and former player who was most recently the head coach for Sabah of the Azerbaijan Basketball League (ABL). As a player, he was a member of the senior Soviet Union and Lithuania national teams, and won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics. During his playing career, at a height of 1.96 m tall, he played at the shooting guard position. He is the only non-NBA player to ever participate at the NBA All-Star Weekend's Three-Point Contest, doing so in 1989, where he scored 9 points.

José Nepomuceno y Zialcita was a Filipino filmmaker. A founding father of Philippine cinema, he is widely known for pioneering film directing and producing locally until the Second World War began. He had his own production company Jose Nepomuceno Productions, which produced the first Filipino silent film entitled Dalagang Bukid in 1919. The film starred Atang de la Rama, a future National Artist of the Philippines. He also directed Un (El) Capullo Marchito in 1920. It starred Luisa Acuña, who then became a famous leading lady in Filipino silent films.

Diane Judith Nash is an American civil rights activist and strategist of the student wing of the Civil Rights Movement. Nash's campaigns were among the most successful of the era. Her efforts included becoming the chairman of the Nashville Student Movement; organizing the Nashville sit-ins, the first successful civil rights campaign to integrate lunch counters; continuing the Freedom Rides, which desegregated interstate travel; co-founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and co-initiated the Alabama Voting Rights Project and working on the Selma Voting Rights Movement with her husband, James Bevel.

Richard Joseph Daley was an American politician who served as the mayor of Chicago from 1955, and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party from 1953, until his death. He has been called "the last of the big city bosses" who controlled and mobilized American cities. He was the patriarch of a powerful Chicago political family. His son Richard M. Daley went on to serve as mayor of Chicago, and another son, William M. Daley, served as United States Secretary of Commerce and White House Chief of Staff.

Vera Margrethe Gebuhr was a Danish film, television and stage actress. Gebuhr was most noted for her portrayal of the snobbish neurotic head saleswoman Miss Jørgensen in the popular television series Matador. She trained at the Royal Danish Theatre school from 1937 to 1939 and debuted at the Folketeatret, working there until 1964. She played her first lead film role as the scheming maid in the 1943 melodrama Møllen. Gebuhr appeared in 65 films between 1937 and 2005, as well as made numerous appearances on Danish television series.