Katherine Anne Porter was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, poet, and political activist. Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in the United States that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim.
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Also born on May 15
Entrepreneur
1951 · United States
$15.6Bolder estimate, as of 2025 · Forbes
Nancy Walton Laurie is an American billionaire who is an heir to the Walmart fortune.
Entrepreneur · Aon plc
1937 · United States
$10Bolder estimate, as of 2025 · Forbes
Patrick George Ryan is an American billionaire insurance businessman. He is the founder and retired chairman and CEO of Aon. In 2010, he founded Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) as a holding company aimed at providing specialty services to insurance brokers, agents and carriers.
Flickr user andymiah, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Athlete
1997 · France
Masour Ousmane Dembélé is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward and right winger for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team.
Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Athlete
1987 · United Kingdom
Sir Andrew Barron Murray is a British professional tennis coach and former player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in 2016.
Brendan Dennis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientist
1859–1906 · France
Pierre Curie was a French physicist and chemist, and a pioneer in crystallography and magnetism. He shared one half of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, for their work on radioactivity.
Dujardin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Author
1915–2009 · United States
Paul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.