Famous People Born in 1918

Nelson Mandela

Anti-apartheid leader imprisoned for 27 years who became South Africa's first Black president and won the Nobel Peace Prize

Anti-apartheid revolutionary who spent 27 years in prison and became South Africa's first Black president.

Photo: Kingkongphoto & celebrity-photos.com · CC BY-SA 2.0

Ingmar Bergman

Swedish director of The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Persona, famous for intense films about faith, death and love

Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish filmmaker and theatre director. He is considered one of the greatest and most important filmmakers in the history of cinema, most notably as a prominent figure of both European film industry and Swedish cinema.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Joost Evers / Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Russian writer and Gulag survivor whose One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago exposed Soviet camps

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Bert Verhoeff for Anefo · CC0

Richard Feynman

American physicist who won the Nobel Prize for quantum electrodynamics, invented Feynman diagrams and was a famous teacher

Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Copyright Tamiko Thiel 1984 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Egyptian army officer who overthrew the monarchy, nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956 and led the Arab nationalist movement

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian military officer and revolutionary who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Press · Public domain

Anwar Sadat

Egyptian president who launched the 1973 war, then made peace with Israel at Camp David, won the Nobel Peace Prize and was assassinated

Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who was the third president of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Press · Public domain

Nicolae Ceaușescu

Communist dictator of Romania for 24 years who was overthrown and executed with his wife in the 1989 revolution

Nicolae Ceaușescu (8 February 1918 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last leader of Communist Romania as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 until his overthrow and execution in 1989.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: unknown · Attribution

Helmut Schmidt

Social Democrat chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982 who steered it through oil shocks and terrorism

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (German:; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Hans Schafgans · CC BY-SA 2.0