The great American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist LANGSTON HUGHES was born in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Academics and biographers today acknowledge that Hughes was a homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry, and most patently in the short story Blessed Assurance which deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness. It has been noted that to retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closeted. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African American men in his work and life. This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died at the age of 65 from complications after abdominal surgery. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The design on the floor covering his cremated remains is an African cosmogram titled "Rivers." The title is taken from the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Hughes. Within the center of the cosmogram and precisely above the ashes of Hughes are the words "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

The Italian-born American composer and librettist GIAN CARLO MENOTTI died in Monaco. He is perhaps best known for the classic Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. He won the Pulitzer Prize for two of them, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955). He founded the noted Festival dei due mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in 1958 and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA, in 1977.

Menotti was the great love of the composer Samuel Barber. The two met when both were students at the prestigious Curtis Institute. Menotti and Barber instantly found a connection, one which started as a shared passion for similar music styles and drifted slowly into a passionate sexual relationship. Around the campus, their "close relationship" was well known. But this was an artistic institute and few of the other students cared for prejudice. With all minds, eyes and ears focused on music, the boys were able to conduct a blossoming relationship undisturbed.

After leaving the Curtis Institute, the two travelled around Europe and collaborated in music. When war broke out, the couple both managed to avoid active service, Menotti through his Italian nationality, Barber by joining the band of the American Air Corps. After the war was over, the couple bought a large house in New York with the intention of living and writing there together for the rest of their lives. Barber continued to work on choral pieces as well as his symphonies. The two won a Pulitzer Prize for an opera based on music by Barber and libretto by Menotti.

After Barber's fall into depression the two parted ways. Menotti moved to other successes and eventually married. Barber died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70 with the express desire to be buried beside Menotti. Menotti was at his side when Barber died. The grave beside Barber's lay empty awaiting Menotti. Barber's will provided that if Menotti chose not to be buried in Oaklands Cemetery (he is buried near his last home in Scotland), a stone should be placed on the empty plot and inscribed with the words "To The Memory Of Two Friends." The website allmusic.com lists Menotti as Barber's spouse.

On this date JOHANNA SIGURDARDOTTIR became the world's first openly Gay prime minister, when Iceland elected her to head up a new parliament.  In 2002 she joined in a civil union with the Icelandic author and playwright Jónína Leósdóttir.