May 18th, 1916

Born on May 18th, 1916

Age in days, weeks and months
Wow, over 39,000 days old!

Why not celebrate an alternative birthday? In 563 days, exactly on November 22nd, 2025, people who were born on May 18th, 1916 will be 40,000 days old!

... in seconds, minutes and hours

What happened on May 18th?

May 18th, 2005

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion publicly debuted at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

May 18th, 2009

The Sri Lanka Army killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader and founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to bring an end to the 26-year Sri Lankan Civil War.

May 18th, 2006

The Parliament of Nepal unanimously voted to strip King Gyanendra of many of his powers.

May 18th, 1996

Ireland won the Eurovision song contest for the seventh time, the highest number of wins for any country before Sweden tied it in 2023.

May 18th, 1974

India conducted its first nuclear test explosion at Pokhran, the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

May 18th, 1965

Eli Cohen, a spy who is credited with gathering significant intelligence used by Israel during the Six-Day War, was publicly hanged in Syria.

May 18th, 1955

Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ended.

May 18th, 1952

First Indochina War: Viet Minh forces overran a French and Laotian garrison at Muong Khoua, leaving only four survivors.

May 18th, 1944

The Soviet Union forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars to the Uzbek SSR and elsewhere in the country.

May 18th, 1936

In a crime that captivated Japan, Sada Abe (pictured) strangled her lover, cut off his genitals, and carried them around with her for several days until her arrest.

May 18th, 1933

U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an act establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority to stimulate the economic development of the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly impacted by the Great Depression.

May 18th, 1927

Disgruntled school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe set off explosives with timers and a rifle (aftermath pictured), causing the Bath School disaster in the Bath Consolidated School in Michigan, killing 44 people in the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.

May 18th, 1863

American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant led his Army of the Tennessee across the Big Black River in preparation for the Siege of Vicksburg.

May 18th, 1695

An earthquake measuring .mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}Ms7.8 struck Shanxi Province in northern China, resulting in at least 52,600 deaths.

May 18th, 1302

Armed insurrectionists massacred the occupying French garrison in Bruges, Flanders, killing approximately 2,000 people.

Birthdays
... of famous people, actors, celebrities and stars on May 18th

Born on May 18th, 1916

70

Manuel Viola

Spanish painter (1916-1987)

*May 18th, 1916, Zaragoza †March 8th, 1987, San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Same Day
Who's birthday is on May 18th?

84

Massimo Girotti

Italian actor (1918-2003)

*May 18th, 1918, Mogliano †January 5th, 2003, Rome

84

John Paul II

264th pope of the Catholic Church

*May 18th, 1920, Wadowice †April 2nd, 2005, Apostolic Palace

71

Rigobert Günther

German historian of classical antiquity (1928-2000)

*May 18th, 1928, Magdeburg †April 2nd, 2000, Leipzig

56

Heinz-Harald Frentzen

German racing driver

*May 18th, 1967, Mönchengladbach

68

Pierre Balmain

French fashion designer (1914–1982)

*May 18th, 1914, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne †June 29th, 1982, Neuilly-sur-Seine

35

Megumi Taruno

Badminton player

*May 18th, 1988, Fukuoka Prefecture

78

Peter Grünberg

German physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate (1939-2018)

*May 18th, 1939, Plzeň †April 7th, 2018, Jülich

92

Toulo de Graffenried

Racecar driver (1914-2007)

*May 18th, 1914, Paris †January 22nd, 2007, Lonay

97

Bertrand Russell

British philosopher and logician (1872–1970)

*May 18th, 1872, Trellech †February 2nd, 1970, Plas Penrhyn

74

Hermann Diels

German classical scholar (1848–1922)

*May 18th, 1848, Biebrich †June 4th, 1922, Dahlem

72

Ben Feringa

Dutch Nobel laureate in chemistry

*May 18th, 1951, Barger-Compascuum

90

Robert Morse

American actor

*May 18th, 1931, Newton †April 20th, 2022, Los Angeles

31

Luke Black

Serbian singer-songwriter (born 1992)

*May 18th, 1992, Čačak

55

Isobel Lennart

American screenwriter and playwright (1915-1971)

*May 18th, 1915, Brooklyn †January 25th, 1971, Hemet

88

Perry Como

American singer, actor, television personality (1912-2001)

*May 18th, 1912, Canonsburg †May 12th, 2001, Jupiter Inlet Colony

94

Frank Capra

Italian-born American film director (1897–1991)

*May 18th, 1897, Bisacquino †September 3rd, 1991, La Quinta

91

Gérard Corboud

Swiss art collector and philanthropist (1925-2017)

*May 18th, 1925, Fribourg †March 5th, 2017

61

Nathaniel Parker

British actor

*May 18th, 1962, London

86

Walter Gropius

German-American architect (1883–1969)

*May 18th, 1883, Berlin †July 5th, 1969, Boston

71

Margot Fonteyn

British ballerina

*May 18th, 1919, Reigate †February 21st, 1991, Panama City

Same year
Born in 1916

89

Phil Brown

American actor (1916–2006)

*April 30th, 1916, Cambridge †February 9th, 2006, Woodland Hills

100

Jean Rouverol

American actress and screenwriter

*July 8th, 1916, St. Louis †March 24th, 2017, Dover

89

Geoffrey Keen

English actor (1916–2005)

*August 21st, 1916, Wallingford †November 3rd, 2005, Northwood

101

Harry Huskey

American computer design pioneer (1916-2017)

*January 19th, 1916, Whittier †April 9th, 2017, Santa Cruz

79

François Mitterrand

21st President of the French Republic from 1981 to 1995

*October 26th, 1916, Jarnac †January 8th, 1996, 7th arrondissement of Paris

71

Jackie Gleason

American comedian and actor (1916-1987)

*February 26th, 1916, Brooklyn †June 24th, 1987, Fort Lauderdale

103

Kirk Douglas

American stage and film actor (1916–2020)

*December 9th, 1916, Amsterdam †February 5th, 2020, Beverly Hills

101

Jacque Fresco

American futurist and self-described social engineer

*March 13th, 1916, Brooklyn †May 18th, 2017, Sebring

88

Francis Crick

British molecular biologist, biophysicist, neuroscientist; co-discoverer of the structure of DNA

*June 8th, 1916, Northampton †July 28th, 2004, La Jolla

107

Friedrich Grade

German engineer and naval officer

*March 29th, 1916, Büdelsdorf †October 13th, 2023, Bornheim

101

Bernard Lewis

British-American historian (1916–2018)

*May 31st, 1916, London †May 19th, 2018, Voorhees Township

79

Harold Wilson

British politician

*March 11th, 1916, Huddersfield †May 24th, 1995, London

104

Olivia de Havilland

English and American actress (1916–2020)

*July 1st, 1916, Tokyo †July 26th, 2020, 16th arrondissement of Paris

93

Vitaly Ginzburg

Russian physicist

*September 21st, 1916, Moscow †November 8th, 2009, Moscow

87

George Silk

New Zealand photojournalist

*November 17th, 1916, Levin †October 23rd, 2004, Norwalk

25

Maurice Bavaud

Swiss assassin (1916-1941)

*January 15th, 1916, Neuchâtel †May 14th, 1941, Plötzensee Prison

84

Sirimavo Bandaranaike

Prime Minister of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) from 1960–65, 1970–77, 1994–2000

*April 17th, 1916, Baḷangoḍa †October 10th, 2000, Colombo

87

Maurice Wilkins

New Zealand-born English physicist and biologist

*December 15th, 1916, Pongaroa †October 5th, 2004, Blackheath

101

Sam Beazley

British actor

*March 29th, 1916, Kensington †June 12th, 2017, London

100

João Havelange

Brazilian businessman and athlete (1916-2016)

*May 8th, 1916, Rio de Janeiro †August 16th, 2016, Rio de Janeiro

Birthdays of famous people

Public holidays on May 18th

Fixed holidays (Christian feast day) which are celebrated on May 18th.

Date as a Roman numeral / digit

Leap year

Yes: 1916 is a leap year, therefore has a 29th of February with an additional leap day and a total of 366 days (instead of the usual 365 days in a normal year).

Calendar
May 1916