PIER PAOLO PASOLINI, Italian writer and film director was born (d. 1975); An Italian poet, intellectual, film director and writer, Pasolini distinguished himself as a philosopher,linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure. He had a unique and extraordinary cultural versatility, in the process became a highly controversial figure.

While openly gay from the very start of his career (thanks to a sex scandal that sent him packing from his provincial hometown to live and work in Rome), Pasolini rarely dealt with homosexuality in his movies. The subject is featured prominently in Teorama (1968), where Terence Stamp’s mysterious god-like visitor seduces the son of an upper-middle-class family; passingly in Arabian Nights (1974), in an idyll between a king and a commoner that ends in death; and, most darkly of all, in Salo (1975), his infamous rendition of the Marquis de Sade’s compendium of sexual horrors, The 120 Days of Sodom. Pasolini was open about his sexuality, his Communism, his compassion for the poor, the delinquent, and the young.

He once wrote a poem for the dying Pope Pius XII that read, in part:

How much good you could have done!

And you

Didn’t do it.:

There was no greater sinner than you

This intelligent and humane man was murdered one night, while cruising, but many believe his murder was a set-up to mask a political assassination.

The first president of Zimbabwe CANAAN BANANA was born on this date. A Methodist minister, Banana held the largely ceremonial office while his eventual successor Robert Mugabe served as prime minister.

Born in colonial Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe after independence), early on Banana studied to become a teacher, and was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1966, following studies at Epworth Theological College in Harare, the Kansai Industrial Centre, Japan, the Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington DC, and the University of South Africa, Pretoria. He soon became involved in politics and the decolonization of Zimbabwe. After independence in 1980, Canaan was lauded as the country's first president following the bloody and prolonged war of independence that toppled Ian Smith's white-only regime. Robert Mugabe was his prime minister. He served until 1987 when Mugabe consolidated his power and became president. After his term as president Banana played key roles in mediation and peacemaking.

He played a significant part in the search for peace in other parts of Africa. In 1989, he led the eminent persons' group of the World Council of Churches that sought to intervene in apartheid South Africa, and was the Organization of African Unity's special envoy to civil war-torn Liberia. The former president's later years were clouded by scandal. In 1997, Rev. Banana was arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of sodomy, following accusations made during the murder trial of his former bodyguard, Jefta Dube. The charges related to accusations that Banana had misused his authority while he was president to coerce numerous men in positions of service (ranging from domestic staff to security guards, and even members of sports teams for whom he had acted as referee) into accepting sexual advances.

He was found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998. He denied all charges, saying that homosexuality is "defiant, abominable and wrong," and the charges against him were "a mortuary of pathological lies" intended to destroy his political career. In 2002, his wife Janet Banana confirmed that her husband was indeed homosexual, even though she considered the charges against him to be politically motivated stating that, "Mugabe used the issue of my husband's sexuality as a way of mobilising opinion against Canaan. Mugabe was jealous of Canaan's international platform" and that was "regarded as the most likely contender to Mugabe's position. The attack on Canaan was an attempt to eliminate any hint of oppositionSix…I." Mugabe's horrific record of anti-homosexual animus and bias make this charge highly credible.

Banana fled to South Africa while on bail before he could be imprisoned, apparently believing Mugabe was planning his death. He returned to Zimbabwe in December 1998, after a meeting with Nelson Mandela who intervened to secure leniency in Banana's treatment. Banana was sentenced on January 18, 1999 to ten years in jail, nine years suspended and he was also defrocked. He actually served six months in an open prison (being allowed to leave for shopping) before being released in January 2001, and died of cancer in 2003 in London. The Guardian Unlimited, however, claims that Banana had travelled to South Africa, where he eventually died, in order to receive appropriate treatment for his cancer. He was buried in Zimbabwe without the full honours expected to be accorded to a former head of state.

MATTHEW RICHARD LUCAS, a British comedy actor, was born. He is perhaps best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the U.K. television sketch show Little Britain and spoof interview series, Rock Profile, as well as for his portrayal of the surreal score-keeping baby George Dawes in the Reeves and Mortimer comedy panel game Shooting Stars. In July 2006 he was placed 9^th in the list of the UK's 100 Most Influential Gays and Lesbians, in fields as diverse as entertainment, business, politics, and science, by the British newspaper The Independent. He studied drama at the University of Bristol and is a former member of both the National Youth Music Theatre and the National Youth Theatre.

His career in comedy began on the London stand-up comedy circuit at the age of eighteen as Sir Bernard Chumley, legendary actor and raconteur — a character who was to appear later in Little Britain. Lucas' association with Reeves and Mortimer began in 1992, when he was spotted by Bob Mortimer on stage.

In 1994, Lucas appeared in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. The second series of the show featured Lucas in several sketches. He went on to star with them in Shooting Stars. He quickly rose to fame as George Dawes, the giant baby, who would deliver a string of meaningless gags (often in character) and insults before delivering the score, while sitting at and playing a drum kit. Many of these parts were introduced not in the style of a baby, but of a grown man — indeed, often, he would come on dressed as a specific adult such as Elton John.

Lucas has also written for Ali G and Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen. Lucas ventured into the world of stage musicals in 2002, when he took one of the main roles in Boy George's musical Taboo, at the The Venue, London. He played the part of infamous performance artist Leigh Bowery, which required him to wear some outrageous and spectacular outfits and make-up. In 2005, he took his first role in a television drama, a supporting part as a Venetian Duke in the BBC historical serial Casanova, written by Russell T. Davies.

Since 2006, Lucas has been the voice of the radio and television character Digit Al, devised as part of a public information campaign on digital switch-over. In November 2006 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.

Little Britain is Lucas' most successful work. Originally a BBC Radio 4 show, it later became a TV series. Little Britain has won numerous TV awards, spawning large DVD sales and merchandising. It plays heavily on memorable catchphrases which have become ingrained in playgrounds and offices around the UK. Lucas plays four of the most popular characters in the series, which he writes and acts in along with David Walliams; apparently disabled Andy Pipkin, teenage chav Vicky Pollard, 'bottom enthusiast' Daffyd Thomas and fat fighter Marjorie Dawes.

In December 2006, Lucas and long-term partner TV producer Kevin McGee were joined in a Civil Partnership ceremony in London. Guests at the service included Walliams as well as Dale Winton and comic Rob Brydon. The ceremony was kept fairly formal, with male guests wearing suits but the evening reception had the guests dressed in pantomime costumes. Evening guests included a hugely broad cross-section of stars from the worlds of television, comedy, music, theatre and the arts.

Lucas was the first celebrity to make an appearance in 2008's Big Brother Celebrity Hijack on E4, working alongside Big Brother in a series containing housemates aged 18-21 with various talents. Lucas and Wlliams' most recent project has been creating a version of Little Britain for the US market. Both actors have also been bravely taking on various straight-acting roles to much acclaim.

The first US soldier to be injured in the Iraq conflict, Marine Staff Sgt. ERIC ALVA, came out and announced his opposition to the US armed forces' "Don't ask don't tell" policy on homosexuality.