The great American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist LANGSTON HUGHES was born in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.

Academics and biographers today acknowledge that Hughes was a homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry, and most patently in the short story Blessed Assurance which deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness. It has been noted that to retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closeted. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African American men in his work and life. This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died at the age of 65 from complications after abdominal surgery. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The design on the floor covering his cremated remains is an African cosmogram titled "Rivers." The title is taken from the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Hughes. Within the center of the cosmogram and precisely above the ashes of Hughes are the words "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

PAMELA S. KARLAN (born February 1959) is a professor of law at Stanford Law School. A leading legal scholar on Constitutional and voting rights and political process, she served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights in the United States Department of Justice Civil Division from 2014 to 2015. Most recently she was one of three law professors to testify before the House Impeachment Hearings of Donald Trump, during which she famously quipped “While the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron,” prompting a wave of pearl-clutching hair-on-fire backlash from conservatives. Alas, she later apologized. 

Karlan earned her B.A. degree in history from Yale University in 1980, as well as an M.A. degree in history and J.D. degree in 1984. At Yale Law, she served as an Article and Book Reviews editor of the Yale Law Journal.

After graduating from law school, Karlan worked as a law clerk for former U.S. District Judge Abraham David Sofaer of the Southern District of New York from 1984 to 1985. She went on to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun the following year. In a 1995 oral history with Harold Koh, Blackmun revealed that his dissent in Bowers v Hardwick had been written primarily by Karlan. He said that Karlan "did a lot of very effective writing, and I owe a lot to her and her ability in getting that dissent out. She felt very strongly about it, and I think is correct in her approach to it. I think the dissent is correct."

Throughout her career, Karlan has been an advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court. She was mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter when he retired in 2009.

Karlan told Politico in 2009, "It's no secret at all that I'm counted among theLGBT crowd". She has described herself as an example of "snarky, bisexual, Jewish women". Her partner is writer Viola Canales.

The Italian-born American composer and librettist GIAN CARLO MENOTTI died in Monaco. He is perhaps best known for the classic Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. He won the Pulitzer Prize for two of them, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955). He founded the noted Festival dei due mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in 1958 and its American counterpart, Spoleto Festival USA, in 1977.

Menotti was the great love of the composer Samuel Barber. The two met when both were students at the prestigious Curtis Institute. Menotti and Barber instantly found a connection, one which started as a shared passion for similar music styles and drifted slowly into a passionate sexual relationship. Around the campus, their "close relationship" was well known. But this was an artistic institute and few of the other students cared for prejudice. With all minds, eyes and ears focused on music, the boys were able to conduct a blossoming relationship undisturbed.

After leaving the Curtis Institute, the two travelled around Europe and collaborated in music. When war broke out, the couple both managed to avoid active service, Menotti through his Italian nationality, Barber by joining the band of the American Air Corps. After the war was over, the couple bought a large house in New York with the intention of living and writing there together for the rest of their lives. Barber continued to work on choral pieces as well as his symphonies. The two won a Pulitzer Prize for an opera based on music by Barber and libretto by Menotti.

After Barber's fall into depression the two parted ways. Menotti moved to other successes and eventually married. Barber died of cancer in 1981 in New York City at the age of 70 with the express desire to be buried beside Menotti. Menotti was at his side when Barber died. The grave beside Barber's lay empty awaiting Menotti. Barber's will provided that if Menotti chose not to be buried in Oaklands Cemetery (he is buried near his last home in Scotland), a stone should be placed on the empty plot and inscribed with the words "To The Memory Of Two Friends." The website allmusic.com lists Menotti as Barber's spouse.

On this date JOHANNA SIGURDARDOTTIR became the world's first openly Gay prime minister, when Iceland elected her to head up a new parliament.  In 2002 she joined in a civil union with the Icelandic author and playwright Jónína Leósdóttir.