Happy Gay Day, Shiny Happy Edition

TODAY IN HISTORY (April 27): 1865 - The worst steamship disaster in the history of the United States occurred when there was an explosion aboard the Sultana; more than 1,400 people were killed. 1953 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed executive order 10450, making homosexuality grounds for exclusion from federal employment. 1956 - Rocky Marciano retired as undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. 1961 - Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain. 1972 - FBI director J. Edgar Hoover testified before Congress that there are no homosexuals in the bureau. 1973 - In New York City, police arrested demonstrators who were gathered in support of a gay rights bill. 1978 - John Argue, a swimming instructor with Toronto Board of Education, is fired from his job at public school because he is gay. Argue later becomes active in the New Democratic Party and is instrumental in the addition of sexuality to the Human Rights Code. 1983 - NBC Nightly News announced that the retrovirus HTLV-III might be the cause of AIDS. 1983 - Pitcher Nolan Ryan surpassed Walter Johnson’s strikeout record—one that had held since 1927. 1987 - Dignity/USA ran an ad in Newsweek magazine to protest the Vatican's decision to evict all Dignity chapters from the Catholic churches in which they had been holding services. 1990 - Three people were injured in a pipe bomb attack on a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Born on this day: 1791 - Samuel Morse 1822 - Ulysses S. Grant 1900 - Walter Lantz ("Woody Woodpecker" creator) 1922 - Jack Klugman 1927 - Coretta Scott King 1932 - Anouk Aimée 1932 - Casey Kasem 1937 - Sandy Dennis 1939 - Judy Carne ("Laugh In") 1948 - Kate Pierson (B-52's) 1951 - Ace Frehley (KISS) 1952 - George Gervin (NBA Star, "The Iceman") 1959 - Sheena Easton

Comments

[MT]

Wow. I never knew a bar in the Village got bombed. What bar was it?

[Tommy]

Yay - B-52s

Tommy - Athens, Greece