JÈRÔME DUQUESNOY, Belgian sculptor, born (d: 1654); Flemish artist Jérôme (Hieronymus) Duquesnoy was one of the most renowned sculptors of the 17th century, but for decades after his death he was better known for his conviction and execution on charges of sodomy than for his impish yet polished style of sculpture. Born into a Brussels family of artists at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Jérôme Duquesnoy lived his first twenty years in the shadow of his famous father, Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder (who re-cast the famous Mannekin Pis [1619], the urinating boy that still stands as Brussels' signature fountain) and his brother François, who showed artistic promise at an early age.

Like his brother he was trained in his father’s studio. After a long stay in the service of Philip IV, he traveled to Florence in 1640 and a year later settled in Rome with his brother. On Francois’s death in 1643, Jérôme returned to Brussels where he carved several statues of the apostles.

He was at work on several projects at the cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent, where his best sculptures were executed, when he was, alas,  arrested for sodomy with two acolytes of the church who had served as his models. The brilliance of his work for the church notwithstanding, he was strangled then burned at the stake, a double death, which, under the circumstances, seems to be a case of clerical overkill and a terrible waste of matches. But you know, the Roman Catholic Church has really strict rules about messing around with children.

HAROLD NORSE, American poet, born (d: 2009); An out Gay American writer who created a body of work using the idiom of everyday language and images. One of the expatriate artists of the Beat Generation, he was widely published and anthologized. Norse was born in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in Brooklyn. He attended Brooklyn College, edited the school's literary magazine, the Brooklyn College Observer, and received his B.A. in English Literature in 1938.

Memoirs of a Bastard Angel traces Norse's life and literary career with W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, e.e. cummings, Tennessee Williams, William Carlos Williams, James Baldwin, Dylan Thomas, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Paul Bowles, Charles Bukowski, Robert Graves and Anais Nin. With Carnivorous Saint: Gay Poems 1941-1976 Norse became a leading gay liberation poet. His collected poems, In the Hub of the Fiery Force, appeared in 2003. Norse was a two-time NEA grant recipient, and National Poetry Association award winner. Norse received a B.A. from Brooklyn College (1938) and an M.A. from New York University (1951).

He moved to Paris in 1960, on a tip from William Carlos Williams, who rated Norse the 'best poet of [his] generation' and at the Beat Hotel he met Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and others, drawn by their interest in Buddhist meditation, which Norse had recently taken up. Using the cut-up technique devised by Gysin and Burroughs, Norse wrote his experimental novel, Beat Hotel.

Originally titled Sniffing Keyholes, the first chapter — which he describes as "a sex/dope scene between a muscular black youth called Melo and a blond Russian princess called Z.Z." — made even the often stoic Burroughs laugh. During his time at the Beat Hotel, Norse began creating his 'random paintings' or Cosmographs (using the hotel's bidet), which brought the attention of Paris' elite art scene.

Norse's writing began receiving major critical attention during the mid-1960's. A 1966 edition of avant-garde literary journal Ole was devoted to him. Throughout the 1960's, Norse's work appeared in the Evergreen Review, a groundbreaking American literary journal that published the Beats alongside internationally acclaimed experimental writers Samuel Beckett, Günter Grass, and Octavio Paz.

Norse returned to America in 1969 and became involved in the Gay Liberation movement, settling in San Francisco, where he died June 8, 2009.

The American television host and media mogul MERV GRIFFIN was born on this date (d. 2007). Griffin began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. During the 1960s, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, and created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

Griffin was a bit of a basket case when it came to being open about his sexuality. He denied it at times and then poked fun at it. Two same-sex palimony and sexual harassment lawsuits in 1991 brought questions about Griffin's sexuality to national prominence. In 1991, Griffin was hit with both a $200 million palimony lawsuit by former "secretary/driver/horse-trainer/bodyguard," Brent Plott, and an $11.3 million sexual harassment lawsuit from Dance Fever host "Denny" Deney Terrio. A 2006 article in Rolling Stone magazine by John Colapinto stated: "Merv does not refute the underlying implication in both cases: that he is gay.

Nor did he admit to it. Instead, he mentioned the high-profile relationship that he began with actress Eva Gabor at the time of his legal troubles. They were photographed everywhere: Atlantic City, La Quinta, Hollywood premieres. Griffin says that they discussed marriage, and he parries any direct questions about his sexual orientation. 'You're asking an eighty-year-old man about his sexuality right now!', he cries. 'Get a life!'" But the year before he'd told the New York Times, "I tell everybody that I’m a quatre-sexual. I will do anything with anybody for a quarter." Griffin died August 12, 2007 and was buried in Westwood Memorial Park beneath a tombstone that reads: "I will NOT be right back after this message." A tell-all book by Darwin Porter "Merv Griffin: A Life in the Closet" promised to reveal it all. And did. Merv was a perv.