10. March 18, 1932: John Updike. He began writing for The New Yorker magazine in 1954. In 1960, he published Rabbit, Run, the 1st of what turned out to be 4 novels about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, an ordinary salesman who appears to have peaked as a high school basketball star, but makes more of himself in the later novels.
Updike described his style as an attempt "to give the mundane its beautiful due." And yet, he may be best known for the line, "Gods do not answer letters," from his 1960 New Yorker story about Ted Williams' last game, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu."
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1893: Wilfred Owen. One of the finest producers of poetry to come out of the experience of serving in World War I, the British Lieutenant was killed in action just 7 days before the Armistice.
9. March 18, 1858: Rudolf Diesel. Inventor of the Diesel engine.
8. March 18, 1951: Ben Cohen. Co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.
7. March 18, 1927: George Plimpton. He coined the phrase "participatory journalism," and while he didn't invent it -- Nellie Bly was doing it in the 1880s -- he did precede Truman Capote and Norman Mailer at it (and both were older). This may have been inspired by the fact that he left Harvard University to enlist in World War II, and became the most patrician tank driver the U.S. Army ever had.
He returned to Harvard, then went to Cambridge University in England, where he, a New York Giants fan, was listening to the 1951 National League Playoff on Armed Forces Radio. Interviewed for Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries, he thus confirmed that Bobby Thomson's home run was truly a "Shot Heard 'Round the World," and the Englishmen he was playing bridge with couldn't understand his joy. (Had they never cheered a goal in their "football"?)
Writing as an amateur pretending to be a professional -- but always getting permission from management -- he pitched to Willie Mays in an exhibition game, for a book titled Out of My League; played quarterback for the Detroit Lions in an exhibition game, wearing uniform number zero, for a book titled Paper Lion, a play on "paper tiger"; tended goal for the Boston Bruins in an exhibition game, wearing Number 00, for a book titled Open Net; boxed Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore, performed a trapeze act in a circus, and did a standup comedy routine in Las Vegas. In spite of all of this, he lived to be 76 years old.
He frequently wrote for Sports Illustrated, including the April Fools' Day article in 1985, "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch." He later expanded it into a novel. He was much better at journalism than he was at fiction.
6. March 18, 1926: Peter Graves. The younger brother of Gunsmoke star James Arness (the family name is Aurness), he starred as Director Jim Phelps on Mission: Impossible and its reboot. He also played Captain Clarence Oveur in the Airplane! movies.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1905: Robert Donat. For 1939, Gone with the Wind swept the major Academy Awards, but Clark Gable was beaten out for Best Actor by Donat, who won for Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He previously starred in the 1934 version of The Count of Monte Cristo and The 39 Steps.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1950: Brad Dourif. His 1st film was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. But he didn't play somebody really crazy until providing the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play movies.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1952: Will Durst. A journalist and comedian who does occasional appearances on PBS. He has said of his hometown, "In San Francisco, Halloween is redundant."
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1963: Vanessa L. Williams. She's done so well as an actress that people have forgotten what a great singer she is, having a Number 1 hit in 1992 with "Save the Best for Last." And she did so well with that that people forgot she was the 1st black Miss America, for 1984, and the 1st black person to lose the crown, for reasons that now seem unfair.
In 1997, she starred in the film Soul Food. She had to be billed as "Vanessa L. Williams" because there was already a Vanessa Williams registered with the Screen Actors Guild. That one played a different role in the TV series based on Soul Food. But by that point, Vanessa L. was so well-regarded that she had to rebrand herself as "Vanessa Estelle Williams."
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1975: Sutton Foster. Unless you're a Broadway person, you probably never heard of the 2-time Tony Award winner before she began playing the 40-going-on-26 Liza Miller on Younger.
5. March 18, 1970: Queen Latifah. Under her real name, Dana Owens, she was an All-State high school basketball player in Irvington, New Jersey. But she took the crown for female rappers, and she's still never given it up. She starred on the sitcom Living Single, now stars in a reboot of The Equalizer, and, in between, hosted a good TV talk show -- twice.
For the record: "Queen" is her stage name's first name, not a title. So if you're looking for her in alphabetical order, use "L" for "Latifah," not "Q" for "Queen."
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1934: Charley Pride. A former Negro League and minor league baseball player, he was the 1st black person to make it big in country music.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1941: Wilson Pickett. The Wicked Pickett was one of the great soul shouters of all time.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1943: Dennis Linde. He wrote "Burning Love" for Elvis Presley and "Goodbye Earl" for the (Dixie) Chicks, and a bunch of other country hits.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1979: Adam Levine. The lead singer of Maroon 5, he also has a clothing line. I have two of his shirts, and I like his clothes a lot better than his music.
4. March 18, 1964: Bonnie Blair. The speed skater won a Gold Medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, 2 more in 1992 in Albertville, and 2 more in 1994 in Lillehammer.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: March 18, 1939: Ron Atkinson. He managed Manchester United to the 1983 and 1985 FA Cups, and won League Cups with Sheffield Wednesday in 1991 and Aston Villa in 1994. He went on to become one of English soccer's top TV pundit. Should one racist comment cast a shadow over his entire record?
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1948: Guy Lapointe. The defenseman played in 4 NHL All-Star Games, helped the Montreal Canadiens win 6 Stanley Cups, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1952: Mike Webster. Perhaps the greatest center in NFL history, he made 9 Pro Bowls, and snapped for Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 4 Super Bowl wins. He was named to the NFL's 75th and 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1956: Ingemar Stenmark. The Swedish skier won 2 Gold Medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1960: Guy Carbonneau. The center won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1986, and captained them to another in 1993. In 1999, he won another with the Dallas Stars, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1976: Scott Podsednik. The outfielder played 11 seasons in the major leagues, making the postseason with the 2001 Seattle Mariners, and winning the World Series with the 2005 Chicago White Sox, including a walkoff home run in Game 2 of the World Series.
Dishonorable Mention: March 18, 1977: Zdeno Chára. The tallest player in NHL history, the defenseman with the most appearances in NHL history, and the oldest current player in the top five North American sports leagues, he helped the Boston Bruins win the 2011 Stanley Cup. But he's also a thug who lost a fight to Brian Gionta, who is at least 14 inches shorter. (I was there: I saw it.)
3. March 18, 1927: John Kander. With lyricist Fred Ebb, he composed the music for musicals like Cabaret, Zorba and Chicago. They also wrote the music for the film New York, New York, including its theme, sung then by Liza Minnelli, but better known by Frank Sinatra.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1844: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He is best known for his 1900 composition Flight of the Bumblee, from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
2. March 18, 1936: Fredrik W. de Klerk. The last State President of South Africa, he freed Nelson Mandela, and led the transition from apartheid to a proper representative government. He and Mandela were granted the Nobel Peace Prize together for this.
Honorable Mention: March 18, 1922: Fred Shuttlesworth. A co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and ally of Martin Luther King, he was one of the last major survivors of the original Civil Rights Movement.
Dishonorable Mention: March 18, 1782: John C. Calhoun. His bigotry made him the patron sinner of American slavery, and the founding father of American conservatism.
From 1811 to 1817, he represented South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives, and was one of the "War Hawks" who bungled the country into the War of 1812. That, alone, should have shamed him out of public life. But, like a modern conservative, he had no concept of shame. President James Monroe named him U.S. Secretary of War, a post he held until 1825, when he was elected Vice President with John Quincy Adams.
He split with Adams over the issue of States' rights, and told Andrew Jackson that he would support Jackson in 1828. Thus did Calhoun become the 2nd and last person to serve as Vice President under 2 different Presidents. (George Clinton was the 1st.) But he and Jackson feuded to the point where Jackson dumped him from the ticket in 1832. Offered one of South Carolina's U.S. Senate seats, Calhoun became the 1st Vice President ever to resign the office.
Calhoun's devotion to a State's right to nullify a federal law it disagreed with almost led to them leading opposite sides in a civil war. Upon leaving the Presidency in 1837, Jackson was asked if he had any regrets. He said, "Yes, I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." In other words, he would have specifically shot Clay, as an equal and as in a duel, since, though an opponent, Clay shared his nationalist views; but he would have hanged Calhoun, a punishment for a crook or a spy. (Calhoun once said, "I don't like Clay. He is a bad man, an imposter, a creator of wicked schemes. I wouldn't speak to him, but, by God, I love him!")
Calhoun served in the Senate from 1832 to 1843, when President James Polk appointed him U.S. Secretary of State. He returned to the Senate in 1845 and served until his death in 1850.
Oh yeah: In another Southern stereotype, he married a cousin, in this case a first cousin once removed: Floride Bonneau Colhoun, daughter of another U.S. Senator.
1. March 18, 1837: Grover Cleveland. He lived the first few years of his life in Caldwell, making him the only President thus far born in New Jersey; and lived the last few years in Princeton, making him 1 of 2, along with James Garfield, to die there. But he lived most of his life in the State of New York, including serving as Sheriff of Erie County, Mayor of Buffalo and Governor, before being elected President in 1884.
He won the popular vote in 3 Presidential elections, a distinction he shares with Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt. But he didn't get a majority on any of those occasions. Another distinction he shares with Jackson, and also with Samuel Tilden, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton is that he won the popular vote but lost -- or, perhaps, "lost" -- the Electoral Vote.
Yet in 1892, he became the only President ever to leave the office and regain it. For that reason the U.S. Department of State has ruled that he is both the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States. His 1st term was considerably more successful, as his 2nd was beset with the Panic of 1893 and the subsequent depression, lowlighted by the Pullman Strike of 1894. But his mediation of a border dispute in Venezuela in 1895 was a major factor in building the British-American alliance of the 20th Century.
A Baseball Hall-of-Famer born during his Presidency was named after him: Grover Cleveland Alexander. He was played by Ronald Reagan in the film The Winning Team, and Reagan himself became President.
Still alive as of this writing: Cohen, Dourif, Durst, Williams, Foster, Latifah, Levine, Blair, Atkinson, Lapointe, Stenmark, Carbonneau, Podsednik, Chára, Kander.