September 9th

September 9 is the 253rd day of the year.  There are 113 days remaining until the end of the year.

1492 Columbus' fleet sets sail west. I don’t have a good feeling about this. . .

1904 Mounted police 1st used in New York City. Ooooh!

1926 The US National Broadcasting Company is formed as the first publicly traded company for gays.

1945 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth is removed with tweezers from a relay and taped into the log

1956 Elvis Presley comes on Ed Sullivan for the first time.  Ed lends his pocket square for him to "clean up."

1971 John Lennon releases splooge on his album. Imagine!

1971 Prisoners at Attica Penitentiary imagine being free and begin a four-day riot, which eternally frees 39 at the avenging angelic hands of state troopers retaking the prison

1978 Iraqi Ayatollah Khomeini calls for uprising in Irani army. The perv. . .

1983 Vitas Gerulaitis bets his house that Martina Navratilova can't beat 100th ranked male tennis player. Homeless, Vitas relies on the kindness of strangers.

1993 PLO recognizes state of Israel after getting new glasses

2009 Entire Beatles catalogue is digitally remastered and released. I’d pay my kids' inheritance to see the original digital mastering and releasing. . .

1585 Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac, maybe gay French clergyman, statesman  

1955 Edward Hibbert, gay US actor 

1962 Renato Gaucho [Portaluppi], Brazilian soccer player 

1965 Jesus Vazquez, gay Spanish actor 

1966 Adam Sandler, US comedian/actor 

1966 David Bennent, maybe gay Swiss actor/Dr Who 

1967 Akshay Kumar [Rajiv Hari Om-Bhatia], Indian actor  

1967 Franco Trentalance, Italian pornographic actor/Uncut 

1968 Alec Danes, gay US pornographic actor  

1971 Henry Thomas, US actor/ET 

1971 Chris Ryman, maybe gay English actor 

1974 Shane Crawford, Aussie Rules footie 

1975 Michael Bublé, Canadian musician  

1976 Luke Savage, gay US pornographic actor 

1979 Marcin Bosak, Polish actor 

1979 Santi Senso, Spanish actor 

1987 Angelo Rodrigues, Portugese actor/singer 

1087 William I, The Conqueror, King of England/Duke of Normandy, gets read his own personal domesday book story.  Here’s William the Next.

1976 Mao Tse-Tung [or Mao Zedong, if you prefer], Chinese Communist Party chairman (1949-76), gets the little red book thrown at him

2008 Richard Monette, maybe gay Canadian actor and director (Oh Calcutta, Popeye Doyle), is just dancing in the dark.

June 21st

June 21 is the 173rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 183 days remaining until the end of time.

217BCE The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. FABULOUS!

1633 Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, and detest" his Copernican heliocentric views.  The Roman Catholic Church admits its mistake in the matter about 400 years later.

1877 Ten Irish immigrants who belong to the Molly Maguires (but NOT a Molly House!), are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

1893 1st Ferris wheel premieres at Chicago's Columbian Exposition. . .size queens!

1942 A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland

1948 Columbia commits to 33 1/3 rpm records, plans to phase out 78's as Dr. Peter Goldmark of CBS demonstrates "long playing record"

1982 John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and being fixated on Jodie Foster

2004 SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

1892 Reinhold Niebuhr, MO-born US theologian and writer who greatly influenced US foreign policy/Serenity Prayer
    God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
    Courage to change the things I can,
    And wisdom to know the difference.

1947 Meredith Baxter, gay US actress

1953 Michael Bowen, maybe gay US actor 

1955 David Marshall Grant, gay US actor

1955 Leigh McCloskey, US actor/Kelsey Grammer’s college roommate 

1961 Blake Gibbons, maybe gay US actor 

1964 David Morrissey, English actor 

1964 Doug Savant, US actor 

1969 Scott Carson, US actor 

1975 Daniel Grigson, Australian gymnast

1977 Will Thorp, English actor 

1978 Ignacio Corleto, Argentine rugger/Dieux du Stade model 

1982 HRH William, Duke of Cambridge/future King of England 

1982 Robin Zabler, German dancer/model 

1986 Rockne Brubaker, maybe gay STLMO-born US figure skater 

1527 Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine statesman/author, has suggestions for God

1964 Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are planted in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  Civil and voting rights demonstrations grow.

2008    Kermit Love, gay US puppeteer (Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Snuggle Bear), flips the bird.  NB: Despite the coincidence of names, Kermit Love first met Jim Henson after the 1955 creation and naming of the Muppet, Kermit the Frog.