PEISISTRATUS, Athenian tyrant, born (d: 528 BCE); A Greek statesman who became the Tyrant of Athens following a popular coup and ruled in 561 BC, 559 BC-556 BC and 545 BC-528 BC. Peisistratos was the son of a philosopher and teacher called Hippocrates, and was named for the Peisistratos in the Odyssey. He lowered taxes and increased Athens' economy.

According to Plutarch he was the eromenos (Greek for “boyfriend”) of the Athenian lawgiver Solon. He assisted Solon in his endeavors, and fought bravely in the conquest of Salamis. When Solon left Athens, Peisistratos became leader of the party of the Highlands (poor, rural people) in 565 BC.

Peisistratos used a clever scheme, calling for bodyguards after he pretended to be attacked. Those bodyguards were composed of the people of the Highlands who had entered Athens. In 561 BC he seized the Acropolis with this group of bodyguards, becoming turannos (tyrant). His rule did not last - he was driven out by Lycurgis, Megacles and others from the party of the Coast within the year.

During his reign, many temples were built and he encouraged poets and artists by welcoming them into his court. According to a story first mentioned by the Latin author Cicero, Pisistratus ordered the writing down of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, which had previously been transmitted orally.

Peisistratus’ eromenos was the youth Charmus, whom he guarded jealously. His son, Hippias, who coveted the boy, kept his distance until his turn to squeeze the Charmus came upon his father’s death.

NESTOR ALMENDROS, Spanish cinematographer was born on this date (d. 1992); One of the most highly appraised contemporary cinematographers. Néstor Almendros Cuyas was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, but moved to Cuba at age 18 to join his exiled anti-Franco father.

In Havana, he founded a cinema club and wrote film reviews. Then he went on to study in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale. He directed six shorts in Cuba and two in New York. After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, he returned and made several documentaries for the Castro regime. But after two of his shorts (Gente En La Playa and La Tumba Francesa) were banned, he moved to Paris. There he became the favorite of Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut. In 1978, he started his Hollywood career, and won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the film Days of Heaven.

In his later years, Almendros co-directed two documentaries about the human rights situation in Cuba: Mauvaise Conduite (about the persecution of gay people) and Nobody Listened. He shot several prestigious advertisements for Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein.

In 1992, Néstor Almendros died of HIV/AIDS in New York at age 61. Human Rights Watch International named an award after him, given every year at the HRWI film festival.

RAMÓN NOVARRO, Mexican actor died (b. 1899); A Mexican actor who achieved fame as a :Latin lover" in silent films. A cousin of actress Dolores Del Rio, he entered films in 1917 playing bit parts, and supplemented his income by working as a singing waiter. His friends, the actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, the actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino and Ingram suggested he change his name to "Novarro".

From 1923 he began to play more prominent roles. His role in Scaramouche (1923), brought him his first major success. In 1925 he achieved his greatest success in Ben-Hur, with his revealing costumes causing a sensation, and Novarro was elevated into the Hollywood elite. With Valentino's death in 1926 he became the screen's leading Latin actor, though ranked behind his MGM stablemate, John Gilbert, as a model lover. He was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles, and was also considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day.

While at the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was earning more than $100,000 per film. He invested some of his income in real estate. After his career ended he was still able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer tried to coerce Novarro into a "lavender marriage", which he refused. Some claim there is no evidence that Mayer tried to coerce Novarro into contractual marriage, but Novarro himself intimated as much in interviews late in his life. Novarro had been troubled all his life as a result of his conflicting views over his Roman Catholic religion and his sexuality.

Novarro's life ended when he was murdered by two Mormon brothers, Tom and Paul Ferguson, whom he had paid to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex.

According to the prosecution in the Novarro murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in Novarro's house. The prosecution accused them of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the nonexistent money was hidden. They left with a mere twenty dollars they took from his bathrobe pocket before fleeing the scene. Novarro died as a result of asphyxiation, choking to death on his own blood after being brutally beaten. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles. The two brothers were later caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but were quickly released on probation. Both were later rearrested for unrelated crimes, for which they served longer terms than for their murder conviction.

In late 2005, the Wings Theatre in New York City staged the world premiere of Through the Naked Lens by George Barthel. The play combined fact and fiction to depict Novarro's rise to fame and a relationship with Hollywood journalist Herbert Lowe, who later became Novarro’s “publicist.” After Photoplay magazine sent Howe to Tunis to cover Novarro in 1923, the two became — as the books call it — “inseparable.” Novarro's relationship with Herbert Howe is discussed in two biographies: Allan R. Ellenberger's "Ramon Novarro" and Andre Soares's "Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro."

JOHN ADAMS, was born on this date. The second President of the United States who said,

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.

-- Letter to John Taylor, 1814