LAURENCE HOUSMAN, British playwright, born (d: 1959); It might have been genetic or perhaps there was something in the water at Fockbury, or maybe it was the splendid name itself, but the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Housman of Fockbury were all Gay.

There was the poet and classicist, A.E. Housman, whom we’ve already met, and sister Clemence, who was a wood engraver and a Lesbian. Laurence Housman began as a well-known book illustrator, working, in part, together with Clemence who turned his fine designs into wood engravings.

A fine selection of his engravings and woodcuts are here: https://www.pinterest.com/verenalewis/laurence-housman/ 

Occasionally, Clemence wrote books of her own, like Werewolves, that were illustrated by her brother. Eventually Laurence became even better known as a playwright of some repute, a career he undertook at about the time that he was known about London as one of Oscar Wilde’s most intimate friends.

Housman’s one great triumph occurred when he was close to eighty years of age, and this was the production of his play Victoria Regina (1937), which made household names of his and Helen Hayes’s names. It is the play that gave the American actress a new first name, “Miss,” a title that stuck to her like a moray eel ever since.

JEANNE CÓRDOVA was born on this date (d: 2016) Cordova was a pioneer Lesbian and Gay Rights activist, a founder of the West Coast LGBTQ movement, and a journalist and Lammy-award winning author. Córdova was born in Bremerhaven, Germany, the second-oldest of twelve children born to a Mexican father and Irish-American mother.

After high-school, Cordova chose to join the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an order of nuns that embraced the radical changes of Vatican II, protested the Vietnam War and sent their young nuns out into the inner cities. She embraced these social justice ideals and left the convent to become a community organizer – her first career. By the time she earned her MSW at twenty-two, she was a young activist for Lesbian & Gay rights who wrote her dissertation on Community Organizing in the Lesbian Community (despite her thesis adviser’s denial that no such community existed.) Feminism, and particularly Lesbian-feminism, was the next wave that she caught.

Transitioning from the softball fields of Pico Rivera to the presidency of the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, she saw the need for a publication to give voice to the new generation of Lesbian feminists, and she began The Lesbian Tide, which became a national news magazine and the voice of a generation of Lesbians. This second career in journalism led to a job as Human Rights Editor of the L.A. Free Press, during the heyday of progressive newspapers. In the 1970’s her columns represented the voices of her various identities – “three-for-one” as a lesbian, a Chicana and a woman.

During the ‘70s she was at the forefront of many “firsts” – first national Lesbian conference, fighting the first California anti-Gay initiative and more. And as the Gay & Lesbian movement became more politically mainstream, she transitioned into the presidency the Stonewall Democratic Club and led the California state wide campaign to elect eighty-eight openly Gay delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. Jeanne Córdova’s literary work includes founding and editing The Lesbian Tide - recognized as “the national news magazine of record" for the Lesbian feminist decade (1971-1980).

Her memoir When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love & Revolution (Spinsters Ink, 2011) was a Lambda Literary Award winner for Lesbian Memoir/BIography, and was also honored with the Publishing Triangle: Judy Grahn Lesbian non-fiction award, Golden Crown Literary Award, the Stonewall Book Award: Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award Honor Book, and 2013 Rainbow List: GLBT Roundtable of the American Library Association. Córdova's books include Kicking the Habit: a Lesbian Nun Story, and Sexism: It’s a Nasty Affair. Her extensive journalism and essays appear in many anthologies including the Lambda Literary Award winning Persistent Desire; a Femme-Butch Reader, Lesbian Nuns: Breaking the Silence, and the trail-blazing, Dagger: on Butch Women.

She spoke about LGBTQ history and culture on campuses, and at community conferences and organizations. and was co-founder of LEX – The Lesbian Experienece – a cultural guerilla group. LEX created the 2009 L.A. history and culture exhibit, “Gender Play in Lesbian Culture" and co-sponsored the ButchVoicesLA conference in 2010.

Cordova died of brain cancer in Los Angeles in January 2016. She is survived by her life partner Lynn Harris Ballen, a feminist radio journalist and the daughter of South African freedom fighter Frederick John Harris.

GLENN HUGHES, American singer (Village People)was  born (d. 2001); Hughes was the original "Biker" character in the disco group The Village People from 1977 to 1996. Originally the group of all Gay members, except for the heterosexual lead singer Victor Willis, was created to target disco's Gay fan base, but the band's popularity quickly became mainstream.

Glenn's powerful bass voice played an important part in the background lyrics of almost all Village People's most known hits, such as In The Navy. He sported an extravagant handlebar mustache (or more correctly a “horseshoe” mustache) and wore his trademark leather outfit on stage and off. As he was the band's "biker" and a real life fanatic, he kept his motorcycle parked inside his home.

Hughes, who was also referred to by the masses as "Leatherman," was named to People Magazine's 1979 list of most beautiful people. He died in March 2001 at age 50 in his apartment in Manhattan from lung cancer.

HORATIO ALGER JR., American writer, died (b. 1832); 19th century American author who wrote approximately 135 dime novels. Many of his works have been described as “rags to riches” stories, illustrating how down-and-out boys might be able to achieve the American Dream of wealth and success through hard work, courage, determination, and concern for others.

This widely held view involves a significant simplification, as Alger's characters do not typically achieve extreme wealth; rather they attain middle-class security, stability, and a solid reputation — that is, their efforts are rewarded with a place in society, not domination of it. He is noted as a significant figure in the history of American cultural and social ideals, even though his novels are rarely read these days. As bestsellers in their own time, Alger's books rivaled those of Mark Twain in popularity.

What no one understood at the time, however, was the reason for Alger’s arrival in New York, not to mention an interesting correlative to his atavistic concern for boys. Back in Brewster, a special parish investigating committee of the Unitarian church had charged their minister with “gross immorality and a most heinous crime, a crime of no less magnitude than the abominable and revolting crime of unnatural familiarity with boys.”

Considering what Alger had been accused of doing to two lads named John Clark and Thomas S. Corcker before he hightailed it out of Brewster is it any wonder that his first book was titled Ragged Dick?