This Day in History

Fun Home

If you know what happened Today in History, let us know!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

1770

Marie Antoinette married the future King Louis XVI of France.

1919

Wladziu Valentino Liberace, pianist and entertainer

1929

The first Academy Awards were given on this night. The term, Oscars, was not used to describe the statuettes given to actors and actresses until 1931.

1946

The Irving Berlin musical, Annie Get Your Gun, opened on Broadway.

1975

Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest.

1977

NBC aired the made for TV movie "Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn" in which a confused country boy moves to Hollywood and is exploited by homosexuals who introduce him to drugs and prostitution.

1979

The National Coalition of Black Gays met at the Gay Community Center in Washington DC to discuss discrimination in gay bars. There were many reports that white people were not carded to enter gay bars, but people of color were.

1981

In Helsinki Finland, twenty people were arrested for participating in a gay rights demonstration and charged with encouraging lewd conduct.

1985

Michael Jordan was named "Rookie of the Year" in the National Basketball Association.

1989

Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping met in Beijing, ending the 30-year rift between the two countries.

1998

In Lancaster South Carolina, Regan Wolf was found by her partner Jenna Wolf after she had been strung-up and brutally beaten. It was the second time she was attacked. Despite being able to identify the three men who attacked her the first time police took no action. She would later be accused of inflicting the injuries on herself.

= Gay Related History

= Birthday