TODAY IN HISTORY (May 21):
1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland. Bad American actress and noted poetess Leelee Sobieski claims to be descended from him, but she is a dirty, stinking, lie-whore. Allegedly.
1730 - In Amsterdam, four men were arrested after being accused of sodomy. All of them confessed and one of them, Pieter Martijn, gave the court the names of forty other men who he accused of being sodomites. All four men would later be executed.
1881 - Clara Barton founded what became the American Red Cross.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly across the Atlantic (from New York to Paris) in his monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis.
1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (from Newfoundland to Ireland).
1966 - A gay motorcade organized by Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay traveled through Los Angeles to protest the US military's anti-gay policies. The motorcade consisted of thirteen cars. In San Francisco 400 people attended a rally organized by the Committee to Fight Exclusion of Homosexuals in the Armed Forces.
1970 - Bella Abzug (D-NY) met with members of the Gay Activists Alliance while running for a congressional seat.
1975 - A Chorus Line opens on Broadway.
1976 - Jimmy Carter announced that if he were elected he would support a federal gay rights law.
1979 - Dan White, who was on trial for the murder of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk was found guilty of manslaughter, rather than first-degree murder. He would be sentenced to seven years, eight months. That evening gays and lesbians gathered outside city hall, where their anger boiled over into the White Night Riots. Twelve police cars were destroyed and the damage was estimated at over $1 million. The only serious injuries occurred in the Castro neighborhood, where police burst into The Elephant Walk bar, trashing it and putting several patrons in the hospital. Several police officers who were not on duty held a celebration at a downtown hotel.
1987 - In Louisiana, Darrell Crider, a serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least five gay men, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
1989 - In Hong Kong, approximately one million people took to the streets to show their support for students protesting for democratic reforms in China’s Tiananmen Square.
1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
1998 - Indonesian President Suharto resigned.
1998 - Fred Hochberg became the highest-ranking openly gay Clinton administration official when he was confirmed as deputy director of the Small Business Administration.
1998 - The parliament of the Republic of Cyprus repealed its sodomy law, then immediately passed another, more repressive law that outlawed speaking in favor of gay rights, placing a personal ad for a same-sex partner, and making a proposal of gay sex.
2000 - Gender PAC Lobby Days began. The National Organization of Women sponsored the event. Activists lobbied congressional representatives on issues of discrimination and gender identity. Born on this day:
427 BC - Plato, Greek philosopher (d. 347 BC)
1898 - Armand Hammer, American physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector (d. 1990)
1917 - Raymond Burr, American actor (d. 1993)
1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)
1925 - Frank Kameny, founder of Mattachine Society of Washington D.C.
1948 - Leo Sayer, English pop singer & musician
1951 - Al Franken, American comedian and author
1952 - Mr. T, (Birth Name: Laurence Tureaud), American actor and fool-pitier
1959 - Nick Cassavetes, American actor and director
1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
1968 - Ron Buckmire, founder of Queer Resources Directory
1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
1977 - Ricky Williams, American football player and cry-baby
Jump with me, people ...
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