October 5 is the 279th day of the year. There are 87 days remaining until the end of the year.
1905 Wilbur Wright pilots Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stands until 1908.
1916 Cutie-patootie Corporal Adolf Hitler is injured in battle, but not enough
1945 Hollywood Black Friday: A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators turns into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios. For a second there, I flashed forward to Stonewall...
1953 The first documented recovery meeting of Narcotics Anonymous is held. Someone remembered to write down the date this time...
1962 Dr. No, the first in the James Bond film series, and the fantasies of gay boys everywhere are released.
1966 Near Detroit, Michigan, there is a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor.
1969 Monty Python's Flying Circus begins airing on BBC.
1970 The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded under a Republican President to become a political football 42 years later
1981 Raoul Wallenberg becomes an honorary U.S. citizen with all the rights, privileges and entitlements pertaining thereto...especially since he's dead and not Mexican.
2000 Mass demonstrations in Belgrade lead to resignation of Serbian strongman Slobodan Miloševic'. These demonstrations are often called the Bulldozer Revolution
1840 John Addington Symonds, gay English historian/writer, one of the earliest scholars of gay and lesbian issues
1892 Dalton Gang gets de-caffed after Coffeyville, Kansas bank holdup
2003 Timothy Treadwell [Dexter], US bear enthusiast featured in Grizzly Man/fool, answers the question and becomes something that bears sh*t in the woods.
2004 Rodney Dangerfield, comic, receives everyone’s final no respects.
March 25 is the 85th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 271 days remaining until the end of time.
1521 The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw. Here’s what a diet of worms looks like. . .
1895 Oscar Wilde, whose tomb revels him to be a bottom, is sentenced to 2 years hard labor for being a sodomite
1931 The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape. There wasn't much singing and dancing, I'm sure.
1935 Jesse Owens equals or breaks 6 world records in one hour
1961 President John F. Kennedy sets goal of putting a man on moon before the end of decade
1962 Isley Brothers release "Twist and Shout"
1965 Muhammad Ali KOs Sonny Liston in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
1968 Rolling Stones release "Jumping Jack Flash"
Here is a jumping jack flashing
1968 Jefferson Memorial to Westward Expansion is dedicated
1969 "Midnight Cowboy" is released with an X rating
1992 Jay Leno stops being funny and becomes unfortunate host of "Tonight Show"
1999 The US House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
2001 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Sorry, the dog doesn’t make it.
1881 Béla Bártok, Hungarian composer/pianist/founder of ethnomusicology
1911 Jack Ruby, US nightclub owner/Murderer of Lee Harvey Oswald/conspiracy theorists' wet-dream
1940 Anita Bryant, US singer/product spokesperson/hatemonger/pie-catcher/ mother of a gay son. Karma's a bitch, ain't it?
1942 Richard O'Brien, bisexual English writer/TV host/performer/Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show
1942 Aretha Franklin, hungry diva/singer/songwriter/pianist/hat wearer. Her hat is in the Smithsonian.
