March 18

Birthdays:

1979 ~ Adam Noah Levine, American signer-songwriter.

1970 ~ Queen Latifah (née Dana Elaine Owens), American rapper and actress.

1964 ~ Bonnie Kathleen Blair, American Olympian speed skater. 

1963 ~ Vanessa Lynn Williams, American model and actress.  She was named Miss America 1984, but had to relinquish the title after lewd photographs of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.

1951 ~ Ben Cohen (né Bennet Cohen), American businessman and co-founder with Jerry Greenfield, of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

1951 ~ Bill Frisell (né William Richard Frisell), American jazz musician.

1936 ~ Frederik Willem de Klerk, South African politician and recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending Apartheid.  He was the 2^nd State President of South Africa.  He served in that Office from August 1989 until May 1994.

1935 ~ Ole Eiler Barndorff-Nielsen, Danish mathematician.

1932 ~ John Updike (d. Jan. 27, 2009), American author who captured the inner life of Middle America.  He died at age 76.

1931 ~ John Mollo (d. Oct. 25, 2017), British military historian and costume designer who dressed stormtroopers and Darth Vader.  He died at age 86.

1930 ~ James J. Andrews (d. July 28, 1998), American mathematician.  He specialized in knot theory and topology.  He died at age 68.

1929 ~ Samuel Pisar (d. July 27, 2015), Polish lawyer and author.  He was also a Holocaust survivor.  He died of pneumonia at age 86.

1927 ~ George Ames Plimpton (d. Sept. 25, 2003), American journalist and actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 76.

1927 ~ William C. Davidon (d. Nov. 8, 2013), American mathematician and political activist.  He was the mastermind of the 1971 break-in in the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, which uncovered illegal activities of FBI operations.  He died at age 86.

1927 ~ Lillian Vernon (née Lilli Menacsche, d. Dec. 14, 2015), German-American businesswoman and founder of the Lillian Vernon Company.  She died at age 88.

1926 ~ Peter Graves (né Peter Duesler Aurness, d. Mar. 14, 2010), American actor.  He died of a heart attack 4 days before his 84^th birthday.

1915 ~ Richard Thomas Condon (d. Apr. 9, 1996), American political novelist.  He is best known for his novel The Manchurian Candidate.  He died 22 days after his 81^st birthday.

1909 ~ Ernest Gallo (d. Mar. 6, 2007), American winemaker and co-founder, along with his brother Julio (1910 ~ 1993) of Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery.  He died 12 days before his 98^th birthday.

1870 ~ Agnes Sime Baxter (d. Mar. 9, 1917), Canadian mathematician.  She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University.  She was only the 4^th woman in North America to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.  She died following a long illness 9 days before her 47^th birthday.

1869 ~ Neville Chamberlain (né Arthur Neville Chamberlain, d. Nov. 9, 1940), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1837 ~ 1940.  He is best known for his attempt to “maintain peace for our time” through appeasement of Nazi Germany for signing the Munich Agreement, which conceded the Sudentenland region of Bohemia to Germany. He died at age 71, just 6 months after leaving Office.

1863 ~ William Sulzer (d. Nov. 6, 1941), 39^th Governor of New York State.  He served as Governor for 10 months, from January 1913 until October 1913 when he was impeached.  He died at age 78.

1858 ~ Rudolf Diesel (d. Sept. 29, 1913), German mechanical engineer and inventor of the diesel engine.  He developed the first internal-combustion engine in which fuel was ignited without a spark, now known at the diesel.  He died at age 55 under mysterious circumstances.  He had boarded a steamer ship and after dinner retired to his cabin.  He was never seen again and his bed had not been slept in.  His clothing, however, was neatly folded beneath an after deck railing, leading to believe he had committed suicide.

1848 ~ Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (d. Dec. 3, 1939), sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.  She died at age 91.

1844 ~ Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (d. June 21, 1908), Russian composer.  He died at age 64.

1837 ~ Grover Cleveland (né Stephen Grover Cleveland, d. June 24, 1908), the 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States.  He is the only American President to have served two non-consecutive terms as President.  He served his first term from March 1885 until March 1889, and his second term from March 1893 until March 1897.  Before becoming President, he was the Governor of New York, from January 1883 until January 1885.  He married the 21-year old Francis Folsom while in Office as President.  He died of a heart attack at age 71.

1828 ~ Sir William Randal Cremer (d. July 22, 1908), English politician and recipient of the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the international arbitration movement.  He died at age 80.

1782 ~ John Caldwell Calhoun (d. Mar. 31, 1850), 7^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President John Quincy Adams from March 1925 until December 1832.  He went on to serve as the 16^th United States Secretary of State during the John Tyler and James Polk administrations, from April 1844 until March 1845.  Before becoming the Vice President, he had served as the 10^th United States Secretary of War under President James Monroe from December 1817 until March 1825.  He died 13 days after his 68^th birthday.

1690 ~ Christian Goldbach (d. Nov. 20, 1764), Prussian mathematician.  He is best known for Goldbach’s conjecture.  He died at age 74.

1640 ~ Philippe de La Hire (d. Apr. 21, 1718), French mathematician and astronomer.  The Mons La Hire, a mountain on the moon, is named in his honor.  He died at age 78.

1634 ~ Madame de La Fayette (né Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, d. May 25, 1693), French author.  She wrote La Princesse de Clèves, which is considered one of the earliest novels in literature and France’s first historical novel.  She died at age 59.

1609 ~ King Frederick III of Denmark (d. Feb. 9, 1670).  He died at age 60.

1603 ~ Simon Bradstreet (d. Mar. 27, 1697), Early American politician and 20^th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he was baptized on March 18, 1603.  He presumably died 9 days after his 93^rd birthday.

1602 ~ Jacques de Billy (d. Jan. 14, 1679), French mathematician and Jesuit priest.  The crater Billy on the Moon is named in his honor.  He died at age 76.

1496 ~ Mary Tudor, English-born Queen consort of Louis XII of France (d. June 25, 1533).  She was the third daughter of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.  She was the third wife of King Louis XII of France.  She died of an illness at age 37.

Events that Changed the World:

1990 ~ Twelve paintings valued at over $300 Million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Mass.  This remains the largest art theft in US history.  The pieces have not been recovered.

1971 ~ A landslide crashed into the Yanawayin Lake in Peru and killed 200 people at a mining camp.

1968 ~ The United States Congress repealed the gold standard, thereby a gold reserve was no longer required to back United States currency.

1965 ~ Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov (b. 1934) became the first person to walk in space when he left his spacecraft for 12 minutes.

1953 ~ An earthquake in western Turkey killed over 260 people.

1944 ~ Mount Vesuvius erupted in Italy, killing 26 people and forcing thousands of others to be relocated.

1922 ~ Mohandas Gandhi (1869 ~ 1948) was sentenced to 6 years in prison for civil disobedience in India.  He ultimately served only 2 years.

1892 ~ Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16^th Earl of Derby, also known as Lord Stanley of Preston (1841 ~ 1908), donated a silver challenge cup as an award for the best hockey team in Canada.  This award later became known as the Stanley Cup.

1874 ~ Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.

1861 ~ Edward Clark (1815 ~ 1880) replaced Sam Houston (1793 ~ 1863) as Governor of Texas.  Houston had been evicted from office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.  Clark’s term coincided with the beginning of the American Civil War.

1850 ~ Henry Wells (1805 ~ 1878) and William Fargo (1818 ~ 1881) founded American Express.

1766 ~ The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, but it came too late for the American colonists.

1438 ~ Albert II of Habsburg (1397 ~ 1439) became Holy Roman Emperor.

1241 ~ The first Mongol invasion of Poland when the Mongols overwhelmed the Polish army during the Battle of Chmielnki in Kraków.

1229 ~ Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194 ~ 1250) declared himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Chuck Berry (né Charles Edward Anderson, Berry, Oct. 18, 1926), African-American guitarist, song-writer and pioneer of rock and roll music who started it all.  He died at age 90.

2017 ~ Thomas “Tom” Amberry (b. Nov. 13, 1922), American podiatrist who became a free throw master.  In 1993, at age 71, he began to shoot free throws and continued for 12 hours, making 2,750 baskets in a row.  He died at age 94.

2013 ~ Robin M. Williams (né Robert Martin Williams, b. Mar. 30, 1919), New Zealand mathematician.  He died 12 days before his 94^th birthday.

2011 ~ Warren Minor Christopher (b. Oct. 27, 1925), 63^rd US Secretary of State.  He served during President Bill Clinton’s first term from January 1993 until January 1997.  He died at age 85.

2010 ~ Fess Parker (né Fess Elisha Parker, Jr., b. Aug. 16, 1924), American actor, best known for his role as Daniel Boone in the TV series of the same name.  He died at age 85.

2009 ~ Natasha Richardson (b. May 11, 1963), American actress who suffered a severe head injury following a skiing accident.  She was 45 years old.

1996 ~ Odysseas Elytis (b. Nov. 2, 1911), Greek poet and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 84.

1989 ~ Sir Harold Jeffreys (b. Apr. 22, 1891), English mathematician.  He died at age 97.

1986 ~ Bernard Malamud (b. Apr. 26, 1914), American novelist.  He is best known for his novel The Fixer about anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia, and The Natural.  He died at age 71.

1983 ~ Robert Fiske Bradford (b. Dec. 15, 1902), 57^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1947 until January 1949.  He died at age 80.

1980 ~ Erich Seligmann Fromm (b. Mar. 23, 1900), German psychologist and philosopher.  He died 5 days before his 80^th birthday.

1965 ~ King Farouk I of Egypt (b. Feb. 11, 1920).  He was overthrown during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.  He died at age 45.

1964 ~ Norbert Wiener (b. Nov. 26, 1894), American mathematician.  He died of a heart attack at age 69.

1947 ~ William Crapo Durant (b. Dec. 8, 1861), American businessman and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet.  He died at age 85.

1913 ~ King George I of Greece (b. Dec. 24, 1845).  He was King of Greece from March 1963 until his assassination 50 years later.  He was killed at age 67.

1898 ~ Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (b. Mar 24, 1829), American social activist who advocated for women’s rights, rights of Native Americans and the abolishment of slavery.  She died 6 days before her 72^nd birthday.

1877 ~ Emory Washburn (b. Feb. 14, 1800), 22^nd Governor of Massachusetts.  He was Governor from January 1854 until January 1855.  He died about a month after his 77^th birthday.

1871 ~ Augustus De Morgan (b. June 27, 1806), English mathematician.  He died at age 64.

1845 ~ Johnny Appleseed, (né John Chapman, b. Sept. 26, 1774), American pioneer in horticulture, who introduced the apple tree to large parts of the American mid-west.  He died at age 70.

1823 ~ Henry Brockholst Livingston (b. Nov. 25, 1757), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Thomas Jefferson.  He served on the Court from November 1806 until his death on this date 17 years later.  He died at age 65.

1768 ~ Laurence Sterne (b. Nov. 24, 1713), English clergyman and novelist, whose most famous novel was The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.  He died of fever at age 54.

1745 ~ Sir Robert Walpole, 1^st Earl of Orford (b. Aug. 26, 1676), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He is considered to effectively be the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from April 1721 until February 1742, was during the reigns of King George I and George II.  He died at age 68.

1227 ~ Pope Honorius III (né Cencio Savelli, b. 1148).  He was Pope from July 1216 until his death 11 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 77 – 79 at the time of his death.

978 ~ King Edward the Martyr of England (b. 962).  He was King as a child from July 975 until his murder under mysterious circumstances.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 15 or 16 at the time of his death.