HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBBIE!!!
TODAY IN HISTORY (May 1):
1650 - Following the beheading of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell's rise to power, sodomy was made punishable by death in England, along with adultery.
1707 - England, Wales and Scotland were united to form Great Britain.
1884 - The construction of the first American 10-story building began in Chicago, IL.
1919 - The US military announced the findings of a court of inquiry, declaring that sufficient evidence existed to court-martial fifteen sailors for sodomy.
1927 - Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
1931 - The Act of Union joined England, Wales, and Scotland to form Great Britain.
1931 - The Empire State Building opened in New York City. At 102 stories, it would be the world's tallest building for the next 41 years.
1941 - Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, considered by many the greatest film ever made, premiered in New York.
1948 - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established with Kim Il Sung as president.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was taken prisoner.
1967 - Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu. (They divorced in 1973.)
1970 - Students at Kent State University begin rioting in downtown Kent, OH, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia. Four students would be killed, and nine others wounded, three days later by the Ohio National Guard.
1971 - In an interview with Playboy magazine, John Wayne referred to "Midnight Cowboy" as a "love story about two fags." Hey, Duke: Stay classy!
1974 - The first gay rights demonstration in Portugal took place, protesting laws which oppress homosexuals.
1976 - Christopher Street magazine premiered.
1978 - Japan's Naomi Uemura, traveling by sled dog, became the first person to reach the North Pole alone.
1980 - San Francisco resident Isabel Wade, when asked for her opinion about gay men having sex in Buena Vista Park, was quoted in the San Francisco Examiner as saying, "My feeling is it is probably the safest park in the city. If you scream, you know fifteen guys will pop out of the bushes to help you."
1986 - The first Asian International Lesbian Gay Association conference began in Tokyo.
1986 - Lesbian Ann Bancroft became the first woman to reach the North Pole by dogsled. The journey took two months and began in Ellesmere Island, Canada.
1990 - The first meeting of OutRage, a non-violent UK organization, took place.
1991 - Texas fireballer Nolan Ryan hurled his seventh no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
1994 - The first Deaf Lesbian & Gay Awareness Week took place in San Francisco.
1996 - In the Australian Capital Territory, a policy went into effect allowing gay partners to have their inheritance rights recognized under probate law.
1996 - Actor Lee Mathis died of complications from AIDS in New York City. He had a recurring role on the soap opera "General Hospital."
1996 - A bill extending current civil rights protections to gays and lesbians was approved by Canada's House of Commons and passed the next week with a vote of 153-76.
1998 - Utah Attorney General Jan Graham wrote a scathing letter to Gov. Mike Leavitt, who criticized her for refusing to file a "friend of the court" brief supporting Vermont's stand against same-sex marriage.
1998 - Afghanistan's Taliban militia brutally beat two soldiers who had been accused of homosexuality. Law required those convicted of sodomy to be executed by having a stone wall pushed on top of them. Born on this day:
1909 - Kate Smith
1916 - Glenn Ford
1918 - Jack Paar
1919 - Harry Caray
1923 - Joseph Heller
1925 - Scott Carpenter
1927 - Harry Belefonte
1939 - Judy Collins
1943 - Ian Campbell Dunn, in Glasgow. Gay rights activist, founder of the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group in 1969 and editor of Gay Scotland.
1945 - Rita Coolidge
1954 - Ray Parker Jr.
1962 - Bob(cat) Goldthwait
1967 - Tim McGraw
1968 - D'Arcy Wreztky (Smashing Pumpkins)
Happy Birthday Robbie!
Posted by: Chad | May 01, 2006 at 08:35 AM
Remember.... this is your day. You can legally get away with anything. Like not showing up for work... Participating in a "parade"... You can even take a dump on the steps of City Hall without fear of being deported back to your homeland.
Wait... no, I'm sorry. Got confused. That's only for illegals. You're only allowed to get drunk and slur your speech.
Posted by: Chad | May 01, 2006 at 08:41 AM
All the birthdays at the bottom include a year. What year, Mister Robbie?
Posted by: rod | May 01, 2006 at 10:26 AM
"My feeling is it is probably the safest park in the city. If you scream, you know fifteen guys will pop out of the bushes to help you."
That just made my day!
Posted by: Yum Yum | May 01, 2006 at 10:48 AM
Happy birthday, Robbie!
(runs out to find protestors to poke with sticks)
Posted by: North Dallas Thirty | May 01, 2006 at 12:05 PM
Happy birthday, Robbie!
Posted by: PatrickP | May 01, 2006 at 01:42 PM
1979, just like the Smashing Pumpkins song.
Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone.
Oh, and can I give a big ole eff you to the Chicago Sun-Times, whose astrologist had this to say in their birthday blurb:
"It may take a while to find true love . . . Around the age of 50, you want to share your life deeply, emotionally with someone."
That's just mean.
Posted by: Robbie | May 01, 2006 at 02:05 PM
Think of it this way, Robbie; it means that you have 23 more years to share your life shallowly and physically with everyone. :)
Posted by: North Dallas Thirty | May 01, 2006 at 02:28 PM
Robbie, Happy Birthday!
Look at it this way, you're already a curmudgeon, so you're way ahead of the curve. You'll be married by next Tueday.
Tommy - Athens Greece
Posted by: Tommy | May 01, 2006 at 03:14 PM
Re: 1971. I think the John Wayne quote is actually from 1970. "Midnight Cowboy" itself was released in (ahem) '69. Wayne had been in two other cowboy films, "True Grit" and "The Undefeated," that same year.
Wayne won the best actor for "True Grit", over Hoffman and Voight from "Midnight Cowboy," but "Cowboy" still, uh, took home some top Oscars. ("And twins!")
"The Undefeated" wasn't nominated for anything, so it was, in a sense... undefeated. But I caught the film when it was on AMC a couple times earlier this month.
In it, John Wayne co-stars with Rock Hudson -- and they both seemed quite game!
P.S. Don't know you at all, but happy birthday Robbie!
Posted by: Yet Another Mike | May 01, 2006 at 09:55 PM
Happy Birthday, Robbie. :-)
Posted by: AGJ | May 01, 2006 at 10:02 PM
1979? I literally have had my baseball mitt longer than that. It's signed by Fred Lynn, and I continue to use it to this day, coaching one of the blewspups in softball.
Happy b'day, brother.
Posted by: blewsdawg | May 01, 2006 at 10:24 PM