February 22nd

February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 303 days remaining until the end of time.

1630 Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn

1860 20,000 shoemakers of Lynn, Massachusetts strike successfully for higher wages and heels

1888 John Reid of Scotland demonstrates golf to Americans in Yonkers after they stop laughing

1940 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is enthroned.

1974 Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon. As Yoda would say: "Not try, do."

1980 USA beats U.S.S.R. in Olympic hockey 4-3 en route to a gold medal and becomes the only ice hockey game I have ever watched from start to finish. Responsible for the popular cheer, "USA! USA! USA!"

1996 Actress Halle Berry files for divorce from David Justice. I wish they made a sex tape.

1997 In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.

1732 George Washington, first US president

1857 Robert Baden-Powell, bisexual English army officer/writer/Scout Movement founder

1926 Kenneth Williams, gay English actor

1932 Edward M. Kennedy, US senator for whom hope floats, but not Mary Jo Kopechne

1959 Kyle MacLachlan, US actor

1965 Scott Lowell, actor/Queer as Folk

1966 Aiden Shaw, English porn star

1968 Jeri Ryan, US actress/single-handedly helped Barack Obama become US Senator from Illinois

1969 Thomas Jane, US actor

1969 Clinton Kelly, "What Not to Wear" host/apparently had nothing left to wear

1975 Fele Martînez, Spanish actor

1978 Dhani Jones, US football player/tv host/diaper-wearing pseudo Sumo wrestler

1512 Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer/cartographer (America), gets lost

1925 Thomas C Allbutt, English physiologist (invented clinical thermometer), gets shaken down.  I wonder where he got the idea. . .

1987 Andy Warhol, US pop artist, goes technicolor because Little Joe never once gave it away. . .

2002 Chuck Jones, US animator, Wyle E. Coyote and the Road Runner, becomes a puff of smoke

2010 Robert Carter, American priest and gay rights activist, a founder of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, finds peace over the rainbow.