Today is the birthday of PAUL "PEE-WEE HERMAN" REUBENS. Best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, he starred in the television series Pee-wee's Playhouse from 1986 until 1990. He also starred in an HBO special called The Pee-wee Herman Show, the 1985 movie Pee-wee's Big Adventure and the 1988 movie Big Top Pee-wee. He has since gone on to take roles in darker themed movies such as Blow. Reubens appeared as the Pee-wee Herman character for the first time since 1992 at Spike TV's 2007 Guys Choice Awards in June 2007.

On January 15, 2011, Reubens appeared on Saturday Night Live as Pee-wee in an extended segment depicting Andy Samberg and Pee-wee getting drunk, taking a ride on a mechanical bull, doing the tequila dance and ambushing Anderson Cooper in an alley way with a chair.

On February 1, 2012, Reubens appeared as Pee-wee on Bravo's Top Chef Texas and served as guest judge. Part of the contestants challenge was to ride a bike, similar to Pee-wee's, while gathering ingredients through San Antonio to prepare and serve a special lunch for Pee-wee at The Alamo. The use of The Alamo is a reference to Pee-Wee's film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, where his stolen bike is allegedly hidden.

Today is fashion designer and motion picture director TOM FORD'S birthday. He gained international fame for his legendary turnaround of the Gucci fashion house and the creation of the Tom Ford label, becoming one of the world's most influential designers. Ford's partner of nearly two decades, Richard Buckley, is a fashion and style journalist.

On this date “the fifth Beatle” BRIAN EPSTEIN died (b. 1934). He also managed numerous other groups like Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and solo artists like Cilla Black. The Beatles recorded a demo in Decca's studios — paid for by Epstein — which he later persuaded George Martin to listen to. Epstein was then offered a contract (after Martin had auditioned the group) by EMI's small Parlophone label, even though they had previously been rejected by almost every other British record company. Though Epstein was homosexual, it was not publicly known until a long time after his death, although it was an open secret among his friends and business associates.

Paul McCartney said that he and the other Beatles knew that Epstein was a homosexual, but they did not care, because Epstein greatly encouraged them when record companies turned them down, and used to take them to late-night drinking clubs they had previously never had access to. Although Lennon often made sarcastic comments about Epstein's homosexuality to friends and to Epstein personally, nobody outside their closed circle was allowed to comment on it. Ian Sharp — one of Lennon's art school friends — once made a sarcastic remark about Epstein but was sent a letter by Epstein's office within forty-eight hours that demanded a complete apology. Sharp apologized but was then completely ostracized, and was told by McCartney in a letter to have no contact at all with any of them in the future. There were rumors of a brief sexual encounter between Lennon and Epstein when they both went on a four-day holiday together to Barcelona, Spain in April 1963. Lennon always denied this, telling Playboy in 1980: "It was never consummated, but we had a pretty intense relationship." Lennon's first wife Cynthia also maintains that Lennon's relationship with Epstein was platonic. A fictionalized account of the Spanish holiday was portrayed in the film 1991 The Hours and Times. Lennon's friend and confidant, Peter Shotton, claimed in his book, The Beatles, Lennon and Me, that under provocation from Epstein, Lennon did partly give in: "I let him toss me off, and that was it." Biographer Hunter Davies also recalled Lennon telling him he had consented to an encounter "to see what it was like."

Writer Albert Goldman expanded on both claims in his The Lives of John Lennon, alleging a longtime affair between the two men. Epstein died of an accidental drug overdose at his home in London in August 1967. The Beatles' early success has been attributed to Epstein's management and sense of style. Paul McCartney said of Epstein: "If   anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian."

ERIKA MANN died on this date. Who was Erika Mann? Mann was the daughter of Thomas Mann and Katia Mann and led one of the most eventful lives you've probably never heard of. She was born in Munich and had a privileged childhood. The Mann home was a gathering-place for intellectuals and artists. She was hired for her first theater engagement before finishing her Abitur at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. On July 24, 1926, she married German actor Gustaf Gründgens, but they divorced in 1929. In 1927, she and Klaus undertook a trip around the world, which they documented in their book Rundherum; Das Abenteuer einer Weltreise. The following year, she began to be active in journalism and in politics. She was involved as an actor in the Lesbian film Mädchen in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan) but left the production before its completion. In 1932 she published the first of many children's books. Shortly thereafter she became involved in several Lesbian affairs in her private life. Her first noted affair was with actress Pamela Wedekind, whom she met in Berlin, and was engaged with her brother Klaus. She later became involved with director Therese Giehse, and journalists Betty Cox and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, whom she served with as a war correspondent during World War II. As was later written, her relationships were both sexually passionate and intellectually stimulating. Mann enjoyed being in the company of women who were intelligent, and with whom she could converse with on any number of international topics. 

In 1933, she, Klaus, and Therese Giehse had founded a cabaret in Munich called Die Pfeffermühle, for which Erika wrote most of the material, much of which was anti-Fascist. Erika was the last member of the Mann family to leave Germany after the Nazi regime was elected. She saved many of Thomas Mann's papers from their Munich home when she escaped to Zurich. In 1936, Die Pfeffermühle opened again in Zurich and became a rallying point for the exiles. In 1935 she undertook a marriage of convenience to the homosexual English poet W. H. Auden, in order to obtain British citizenship. She and Auden never lived together, but remained friends and technically married until Erika's death.

In 1937, she crossed over to New York, where Die Pfeffermühle (as The Peppermill) opened its doors again. They lived (with Therese Giehse and her brother Klaus Mann and Miro) in a large group of artists in exile with people like Kurt Weill, Ernst Toller, and Sonja Sekula. In 1938, she and Klaus reported on the Spanish Civil War, and her book School for Barbarians about Nazi Germany's educational system was published. The following year, they published Escape to Life, a book about famous German exiles. During the war, she was active as a journalist in England. After World War II, Mann was one of the few women who covered the Nuremberg Trials. Following the war, both Klaus and Erika came under an FBI investigation into their political views and rumored homosexuality. In 1949, becoming increasingly depressed and disillusioned over post-war torn Germany, Klaus Mann committed suicide. This event devastated Erika.

On this date, Gay Rights pioneer DEL MARTIN died (b: 1921 nee: Dorothy Louise Taliaferro.) The founder of the 1950s activist organization The Daughters of Bilitis is survived by her companion of almost 60 years PHYLLIS LYON. The two were married on June 16, 2008 in the first same-sex wedding to take place in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court's decision in In re Marriage Cases legalized same-sex marriage in California.