Famous Birthdays on May 18

Robert Alan Morse was an American actor. Known for his gap-toothed boyishness, he started his career acting in Broadway musicals and plays before expanding into film and television. For his roles on Broadway, Morse won two Tony Awards; the first for Best Actor in a Musical for playing J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), a role he reprised in the 1967 film adaptation; the second for Best Actor in a Play for portraying Truman Capote in the one-man play Tru (1988), a role he reprised in the 1992 television production, earning him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Morse was also Tony-nominated for Say, Darling (1959), Take Me Along (1960), and Sugar (1973). Morse acted in his final stage role in the Broadway revival of the newspaper comedy The Front Page from 2016 to 2017.

Jessica Rose Watson is an Australian sailor who attempted a solo circumnavigation at the age of 16 from 18 October 2009 to 15 May 2010. Although she circled the planet, she did it in a narrow range of latitudes relatively far from the equator that resulted in her voyage falling short of the distance criterion of 21,600 nautical miles (40,000 km) for a circumnavigation – the equivalent of the circumference of the Earth at the equator – by nearly 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km); Watson was nevertheless named 2011 Young Australian of the Year and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012 for "...service to sailing and to youth through the achievement of sailing solo and unassisted around the world [sic], and as a role model for young Australians". As of November 2022, she resides in Melbourne. Netflix produced a film, True Spirit (2023), about Watson's voyage.

Yannick Noah is a French former professional tennis player and singer, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. Noah won the French Open in singles in 1983 and in doubles in 1984, and is a former captain of both France's Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams. During his nearly two-decade career, Noah captured 23 singles titles and 16 doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 3 in July 1986 and attaining the world No. 1 doubles ranking the following month. Since his retirement from the game, Noah has remained in the public eye as a popular music performer and as the co-founder, with his mother, of a charity organization for underprivileged children. He is commemorated each year at Roland-Garros with Yannick Noah's Day. Noah is also the father of former NBA player Joakim Noah.

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar and taught there for several years, becoming known as a leading proponent of the International Style. Gropius emigrated from Germany to England in 1934 and from England to the United States in 1937, where he spent much of the rest of his life teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In the United States he worked on several projects with Marcel Breuer and with the firm The Architects Collaborative, of which he was a founding partner. In 1959, he won the AIA Gold Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture.

Jacob Koppel Javits was an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of New York. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both chambers of the United States Congress, a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1947 to 1954 and a member of the United States Senate from 1957 to 1981. He also served as Attorney General of New York from 1955 to 1957. Generally considered a liberal Republican, he was often at odds with his own party. A supporter of labor unions, the Great Society, and the civil rights movement, he played a key role in the passing of civil rights legislation. An opponent of the Vietnam War, he drafted the War Powers Resolution in 1973.

Oliver Heaviside was a British mathematician and physicist who invented a new technique for solving differential equations, independently developed vector calculus, and rewrote Maxwell's equations in the form commonly used today. He significantly shaped the way Maxwell's equations were understood and applied in the decades following Maxwell's death. Also, in 1893, he extended them to gravitoelectromagnetism, which was confirmed by Gravity Probe B in 2005. His formulation of the telegrapher's equations became commercially important during his own lifetime, after their significance went unremarked for a long while, as few others were versed at the time in his novel methodology. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of telecommunications, mathematics, and science.

Thomas Stewart Udall is an American diplomat, attorney, and politician who served as a United States senator for New Mexico from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district from 1999 to 2009 and New Mexico attorney general from 1991 to 1999. In 2022, he was made the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, leaving his post in 2025. Born in Tucson, Arizona to the Udall family, he is the son of former U.S. Representative and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and the nephew of former U.S. Representative Mo Udall. His cousin is Mark Udall, a Senator for the neighboring state of Colorado from 2009 to 2015.

Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley was a British artist noted for her portraiture of street children in Glasgow and for her landscapes of the fishing village of Catterline and surroundings on the North-East coast of Scotland. One of Scotland's most enduringly popular artists, her career was cut short by breast cancer. Her artistic career had three distinct phases. The first was from 1940 when she enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art through to 1949 when she had a successful exhibition of paintings created while travelling in Italy. From 1950 to 1957, Eardley's work focused on the city of Glasgow and in particular the slum area of Townhead. In the late 1950s, while still living in Glasgow, she spent much time in Catterline before moving there permanently in 1961. During the last years of her life, seascapes and landscapes painted in and around Catterline dominated her output.

John George Children FRS FRSE FLS PRES DL was a British chemist, mineralogist and zoologist. Children established a chemical laboratory at his father's home Ferox Hall and conducted experiments into galvanic cells. Following Children's father's bankruptcy and sale of the family estates in 1812 he was forced to seek employment, and in 1816 following a failed attempt at establishing a gunpowder business with his friend Sir Humphry Davy he became the assistant librarian of the department of antiquities at the British Museum in London. In 1822 Davy helped him secure a controversial appointment to the post of assistant keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum. He later served as Keeper of the Zoological Department following the division of the Natural History Department into three distinct departments in 1837, he remained in this post until his retirement from the museum in 1840. Along with Davy he built a large galvanic cell, assisted him in experiments and invented a method to extract silver from ore without the need for mercury. Children was also the founding president of the Royal Entomological Society. His daughter Anna Atkins became a pioneer of botanical photography.

Ivet Miroslavova Lalova-Collio, née Lalova, is a retired Bulgarian athlete who specialised in the 100 metres and 200 metres sprint events. She is the 13th-fastest woman in the history of the 100 metres. She finished fourth in the 100 metres and fifth in the 200 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her career was interrupted for two years between June 2005 and May 2007 due to a leg injury sustained in a collision with another athlete. In June 2012 she won gold at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in the Women's 100 metres. In July 2016 she won two silver medals at the 2016 European Athletics Championships in both the Women's 100 and 200 metres. She has participated in five editions of the Olympic Games.

James Howard Sundberg is an American former professional baseball player, television sports analyst, and executive. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1974 to 1989, most prominently as a member of the Texas Rangers where he established himself as one of the top defensive catchers of his era. A three-time All-Star player, Sundberg won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards during his tenure with the Rangers. Later in his career, he won a World Series championship as a member of the Kansas City Royals in 1985. He also played for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs. Sundberg was inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame in 2003.

Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboardist and composer best known for his multiple tenures in the progressive rock band Yes and for his prolific solo career, which has spanned six decades. His most successful and acclaimed albums are his first three progressive rock concept albums–The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973), the UK number-one Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974), and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975). AllMusic describes Wakeman as a "classically trained keyboardist extraordinaire who plied his trade with Yes and developed his own brand of live spectacular in a solo act."

Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), he was Accused No.2 in the Rivonia Trial and was incarcerated on Robben Island where he served more than 25 years' imprisonment for his anti-Apartheid revolutionary activism. He had a close partnership with Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela, with whom he played a key role in organising the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the establishment of the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was also on the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party.

John Higgins is a Scottish professional snooker player from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won 33 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners. He has won four World Championships, three UK Championships and two Masters titles, for a total of nine Triple Crown titles, behind only four players. He first entered the top 16 in the 1995–96 world rankings and remained there continuously for over 29 years until September 2024, setting a record for the longest uninterrupted tenure as a top-16 player. He reached the world number one position four times.

Charles Benjamin "Babe" Adams was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1906 to 1926 who spent nearly his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Noted for his outstanding control, his career average of 1.29 walks per 9 innings pitched was the second lowest of the 20th century; his 1920 mark of 1 walk per 14.6 innings was a modern record until 2005. He shares the Pirates' franchise record for career victories by a right-hander (194), and holds the team mark for career shutouts (47); from 1926 to 1962, he held the team record for career games pitched (481).

Augusto César Sandino was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United States occupation of Nicaragua. Despite being referred to as a "bandit" by the United States government, his exploits made him a hero throughout much of Latin America, where he became a symbol of resistance to American imperialism. Sandino drew units of the United States Marine Corps into an undeclared guerrilla war. The United States troops withdrew from the country in 1933 after overseeing the election and inauguration of President Juan Bautista Sacasa, who had returned from exile.

Jari Pekka Kurri is a Finnish former professional ice hockey player. Beginning in 1980, he played right wing for five National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings, the New York Rangers, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and the Colorado Avalanche. Prior to his NHL career, Kurri excelled for Jokerit in the SM-liiga, and he rose from playing in the Finnish junior ice hockey team to the country's national hockey team in two years. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1980 NHL draft by the Oilers and immediately played for the team that year.

Simon Pierre Michel Pagenaud is a French former professional racing driver, who last drove the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing in the NTT IndyCar Series. After a successful career in sports car racing that saw him taking the top class championship title in the 2010 American Le Mans Series, he moved to the Indycar Series where he became the 2016 IndyCar champion and the 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner, becoming the first driver born in France to win the Indianapolis 500 since Gaston Chevrolet in 1920 and the first polesitter to have won the race since Helio Castroneves in 2009.

Raymond Robert Nagel was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at the University of Utah from 1958 to 1965 and the University of Iowa from 1966 to 1970, compiling a career college football coaching record of 58–71–3 (.455). After coaching, Nagel was the athletic director at Washington State University from 1971 to 1976 and the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1976 to 1983. From 1990 to 1995, he was the executive director of the Hula Bowl, a college football invitational all-star game in Hawaii.