PIETRO ARETINO, Renaissance writer and dramatist, born (d: 1556); an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography, notably in La Cazzaria ("The Book of the Prick"). This colorful writer and dramatist, described as the first professional writer of his century, was probably the son of a cobbler, although he preferred to claim he was illegitimate and of noble origin. His patrons included Popes (Leo X, Clement VII), Cardinals, kings (Francois I and Emperor Charles V) and other connoisseurs of the porn of the age.

He had a flair for self-dramatization, a fertile dirty mind, and an uncanny knack for profiting from the politics of his age. He first achieved notoriety for a series of pornographic sonnets, each describing a different position of sexual intercourse, and each illustrated by Giulio Romano and in which he declares himself to have been a sodomite from birth.

In a letter to Giovanni de Medici written in 1524 Aretino encloses a satirical poem saying that due to a sudden aberration he has fallen in love with a female cook and “temporarily switched from boys to girls..." Later he was known and admired for his ragionamenti – dialogues, often audaciously filthy, on contemporary Roman life. Public figures so feared his clever and vicious pen that Aretino became rich from promising not to write on certain subjects.  He is said to have died from a stroke while laughing at a dirty joke.

GEORGE TAKEI, American actor, born; a Japanese-American actor best known for his role in the TV series Star Trek, in which he played the helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the USS Enterprise. Most recently, he played Hiro Nakamura’s father Kaito Nakamura on the NBC television show, Heroes.

Takei is also known for his baritone voice and deep-throated catch phrase, "Oh my!"  In October 2005, Takei revealed in an issue of Frontiers magazine that he is Gay, and has been in a committed relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, for the last eighteen years. He said, "It's not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen." Nevertheless, Takei's sexuality had long been an open secret among Trek fans since the 1970s, and Takei did not conceal his active membership in Gay organizations including Frontrunners, where Takei met Altman, along with fellow runners Kevin and Don Norte, with whom he became friends.

"We are masculine, we are feminine, we are caring, we are abusive. We are just like straight people, in terms of our outward appearance and our behavior. The only difference is that we are oriented to people of our own gender." This is said to have been taken from a December 2005 telephone interview with Howard Stern, in which Takei described Altman as "a saint" for helping to take care of Takei's terminally ill mother.

Alex Cho, former editor of Frontiers, has stated that the Takei article was initiated by someone in the Takei camp when a close personal friend called the papers to ask them if they would be interested in the story. The friend remains unidentified but according to Cho, Takei offered his story voluntarily and not under any pressure from the media. Kevin Norte and Don Norte, when asked if they were involved in initiating the article, declined to comment.

When asked whether his character Sulu was Gay, Takei's response was that he would like to believe that sexual orientation would not even be an issue in the twenty-third century. Of all the show's principal characters, Sulu was the only male never depicted with a romantic interest; having said that, in the alternate universe depicted in "Mirror Mirror", alternate-Sulu tried many times to seduce Uhura, and "normal" Sulu is revealed to have fathered a daughter, Demora, during the opening sequence of the film Star Trek Generations (Demora's origins were further explored in Peter David's novel Captain's Daughter).

ANDREW TOBIAS, American journalist and author; An American journalist, author, and columnist. His main body of work is on investment, but he has also written on politics, insurance, and other topics. Tobias wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Best Little Boy in the World under the pen name "John Reid" back in 1973 (which this writer clumsily adapted for stage in 1979). He used a pen name because he wasn't comfortable then with publicly disclosing his homosexuality to a broad audience. This book was later republished in 1998 under his real name to coincide with the sequel, The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up.

Since 1999, he has been the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. Tobias is the partner of fashion designer Charles Nolan. Tobias was Grand Marshall of the 2005 New York City Gay Pride Parade.

TOLLER CRANSTON, Canadian figure skater and artist was born on this date (d: 2015); Cranston is credited by many with bringing a new level of artistry to men's figure skating. He was called "the Nureyev of ice skating." He was the Canadian National Figure Skating champion from 1971 to 1976. Although he never won a world level competition, he scored the highest marks in the free skate at four world championships. He won bronze medals at the 1974 World Figure Skating Championship and the 1976 Winter Olympics. He was the 1988 World Professional Champion.

He lived in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico, where his main artistic outlet was his painting, which often incorporated themes related to skating. He co-wrote the autobiographical Zero Tollerance (1997) with Martha Lowder Kimball. In his second autobiography, Cranston details a sexual tryst between himself and Ondrej Nepela, a Slovak figure skater who competed for Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s an early 1970s. He died in Mexico City in January 2015 of a heart attack.

LUTHER VANDROSS, American singer, born (d. 2005); During Vandross's entire career, he was dogged by questions regarding his sexuality. A “lifelong bachelor,” his name was never romantically linked in the media with women. Although Vandross never came out of the closet, he also never explicitly denied being a homosexual, (but giiiiiirl!...), and generally attempted to steer questioners away from the issue altogether by saying that his busy lifestyle made marriage difficult. Whatever. The interviews were conducted by the Magazine "Out" at http://www.out.com/detail.asp?t=voices&id=17089

MATUS VALENT, male fitness model, born; A European male fitness model born in, Bratislava Slovak Republic now living in California. As a youth, he played indoor volleyball and became the Junior Slovakian champion with his team ASK Inter. He was also on the Slovakian National team at age nineteen. He is 6'3" tall and weighs 200 pounds.

During his college years, he turned to beach volleyball, and in 2004 he became the California A-Category champion. http://www.matusvalent.com/  

420, 4:20, or 4/20 (pronounced "four-twenty") is a code-term that refers to the consumption of cannabis, especially smoking cannabis around the time 4:20 p.m./a.m. (or 16:20 in some European nations) and smoking and celebrating cannabis on the date April 20 (which is 4/20 in U.S. form).

The origin of the term 420, celebrated around the world by pot smokers every April 20th, has long been obscured by the clouded memories of the folks who made it a phenomenon. Depending on who you ask, or their state of inebriation, there are as many varieties of answers as strains of medical bud in California. It’s the number of active chemicals in marijuana. It’s teatime in Holland. It has something to do with Hitler’s birthday. It’s those numbers in that Bob Dylan song multiplied.

In reality it was more of a New Age Where’s Waldo?”

A group of five San Rafael High School friends known as the Waldos - by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school – are credited with coining the term in 1971. The Waldos were all athletes and agreed to meet at the statue of Louis Pasteur outside the school at 4:20, after practice, to begin the hunt.

The Waldos also have proof that they used the term in the early ‘70s in the form of an old 420 flag and numerous letters with 420 references and early ‘70s post marks. They also have a story.

It goes like this: One day in the Fall of 1971 - harvest time - the Waldos got word of a Coast Guard service member who could no longer tend his plot of marijuana plants near the Point Reyes Peninsula Coast Guard station. A treasure map in hand, the Waldos decided to pluck some of this free bud.

The Waldos were all athletes and agreed to meet at the statue of Louis Pasteur outside the school at 4:20, after practice, to begin the hunt.

There was Waldo Steve, Waldo Dave and Dave’s older brother, Patrick: “We would remind each other in the hallways we were supposed to meet up at 4:20. It originally started out 4:20-Louis and we eventually dropped the Louis,” Waldo Steve