What happened on October 18 ?

1127 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (d. 1192)

1405 - Pope Pius II (d. 1464)

1517 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (d. 1570)

1547 - Justus Lipsius, Flemish humanist (d. 1606)

1569 - Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (d. 1625)

1595 - Edward Winslow, Plymouth Colony founder (d. 1655)

1634 - Luca Giordano, Italian artist (d. 1705)

1653 - Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)

1662 - Matthew Henry, English non-conformist minister (d. 1714)

1668 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony (d. 1694)

1679 - Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem Witch Trials (d. 1716)

1701 - Charles le Beau, French historian (d. 1778)

1706 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (d. 1785)

1741 - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (d. 1803)

1777 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (d. 1811)

1785 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (d. 1866)

1854 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)

1859 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1941)

1868 - Ernst Didring, Swedish author (d. 1931)

1873 - Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)

1893 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese founder of Macrobiotics (d. 1966)

1898 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)

1898 - Shin'ichi Suzuki, Japanese violinist (d. 1998)

1902 - Miriam Hopkins, American actress (d. 1972)

1902 - Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)

1903 - Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

1906 - James Brooks, American painter (d. 1992)

1909 - Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher and legal theorist (d. 2004)

1911 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru

1913 - Robert Gilruth, American aviation and space pioneer (d. 2000)

1918 - Bobby Troup, American musician (d. 1999)

1919 - Anita O'Day, American singer

1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)

1920 - Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and political activist (d. 1994)

1921 - Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina

1925 - Ramiz Alia, political leader of Albania

1926 - Chuck Berry, American musician

1926 - Klaus Kinski, German actor (d. 1991)

1927 - George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)

1928 - Keith Jackson, American football commentator

1928 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster, Canadian musician

1929 - Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua

1931 - Chris Albertson, American jazz historian

1932 - Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician, one of the political destroyers of the Soviet Union

1934 - Inger Stevens, Swedish actress (d. 1970)

1934 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist

1935 - Peter Boyle, American actor

1939 - Mike Ditka, American football player, coach, and commentator

1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald, purported American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)

1939 - Flavio Cotti, member of the Swiss Federal Council

1945 - Huell Howser, American TV host

1946 - Howard Shore, Canadian film composer

1947 - Joe Morton, American actor

1947 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)

1948 - Ntozake Shange, American author

1949 - George Hendrick, baseball player

1950 - Om Puri, Indian actor

1950 - Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright

1951 - Terry McMillan, American author

1952 - B?o Ninh, Vietnamese novelist

1956 - Martina Navrátilová, Czech-born tennis player

1959 - Mil?o Man?evski, Macedonian film director and screenwriter

1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian actor

1961 - Wynton Marsalis, American musician

1968 - Basil White, American comedian

1970 - Jose Padilla, American gang member and suspected terrorist

1970 - Doug Mirabelli, baseball player

1974 - Robbie Savage, Welsh footballer

1975 - Alex Cora, baseball player

1976 - Azlea Antistia, American actress

1977 - Ryan Nelsen, New Zealander footballer

1987 - Zac Efron, American actor and singer