India – Gandhi Jayanti (birthday of Mahatma Gandhi) a national holiday celebrated in India to mark the occasion of the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation". It is celebrated on October 2, every year. It is one of the three, official declared National Holidays of India and is observed in all its states and union territories. The United Nations General Assembly announced on June 15^th 2007 that it adopted a resolution which declared that October 2 will be celebrated as the International Day of Non-Violence.

CHARLES RICKETTS, English editor, artist, publisher, born. There have always been Gay couples, living discreet and not entirely secret lives together, that have managed to enjoy happy partnerships, free of scandal and sensation. Such a marriage ‒ and it was a marriage ‒ was enjoyed by Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, two English artist of note. Although both pursued independent careers as painters (Ricketts was also a stage designer whose work anticipated Bakst), they served as joint editors of the Dial before Ricketts founded the Vale Press in 1896 and designed some of the most beautiful collectors’ books ever printed.

Their friendship was an open secret and they moved undisturbed within London’s Gay circle throughout the Oscar Wilde years and after. Both, in fact, were present at the very Gay twenty-first birthday party for Vyvyan Holland, Oscar Wilde’s son. (Others present included Henry James, Ronald Firbank, Robbie Ross and Reggie Turner.) Ricketts and Shannon lived together for more than 50 years. Their greatest issue seemed to be what to do if the telephone rang and asked for “Charlie.”

JAN MORRIS, transgendered British historian and travel writer, Morris was born on this date in Clevedon, Somerset, England, and later educated at Lancing College, West Sussex She is Welsh by heritage and adoption and is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste and New York City. She has also written about Spanish history and culture.

Born male, James Morris had sex reassignment in Morocco in 1972 and adopted the name Jan. She wrote of her quest for personal identity in her book Conundrum. She has maintained her marriage to Elizabeth Tuckniss since 1949. They had five children, including the poet and musician Twm Morys, but one is now deceased.

Morris served in WWII in British Intelligence and later wrote for The Times. Morris scored a notable scoop in 1953 by accompanying the British expedition which was first to scale Mount Everest. Reporting from Cyprus on the Suez Canal for The Manchester Guardian in 1956, Morris produced the first “irrefutable proof" of collusion between France and Israel in the invasion of Egyptian territory, interviewing French Air Force pilots who confirmed they had been in action in support of Israeli forces.

REX REED, American movie critic and actor, was born on this date. Reed currently writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for the New York Observer. Reed was born in Ft. Worth, Texas to Jimmie M. Reed and Jewell Smith. Dismissed as lightweight by some critics, others consider him an important writer in the style of New Journalism. He is the author of a number of books, including the novel Personal Effects, Do You Sleep in the Nude? (1968), People are Crazy Here (1970), and Rex Reed's Guide to Movies on TV and Video (1992). To this writer, he seems like a character out of Boys in The Band.

He has acted occasionally, as in the movie version of Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, perhaps one of the worst movies ever made. During its filming he was a frequent talk-show guest, often making fun of the production, leaving it unclear whether he was trying to help or hurt its box-office performance. He got his biggest public visibility, however, when his syndicated column took on Frank Sinatra when he appeared at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1974. Reed decried Sinatra as arrogant, vocally washed-up and sloppily dressed, and suggested the middle-aged female fans shown on camera should have been "home making meat loaf." From then on, and lasting a few years, Sinatra blasted Reed, and in particular Reed's sexuality, in his many concert appearances. Unfazed, Reed countered that it only proved how out-of-date Sinatra was. Reed has also appeared in the films Inchon! and Superman.

Reed continues making headlines today for his particularly offensive review of “Identity Thief,” in which he called comedian Melissa McCarthy “humongous,” “tractor-sized,” and a “female hippo.” He continued to focus on nothing but her weight, trivializing her fame to the point of calling the “Bridesmaids” star “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success.” Glass houses, Rex. Glass houses.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ, noted American portrait photographer born. Her style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject. Leibovitz had a romantic relationship with noted writer and essayist Susan Sontag. They met in 1990, when both had already established notability in their careers. Leibovitz has suggested that Sontag mentored her and constructively criticized her work.

After Sontag's death in 2004, Newsweek published an article about Leibovitz that made reference to her decade-plus relationship with Sontag, stating that "The two first met in the late '80s, when Leibovitz photographed her for a book jacket. They never lived together, though they each had an apartment within view of the other's."

Neither Leibovitz nor Sontag had ever previously publicly disclosed whether the relationship was familial, a friendship, or romantic in nature. However, when Leibovitz was interviewed for her 2006 book A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005, she said the book told a number of stories, and that "with Susan, it was a love story".

In the preface to the new book, she speaks in greater detail about her romantic/intellectual relationship with Sontag and her Lesbianism, briefly discussing a book they were working on together and describes how assembling her new book was part of the grieving process after Sontag's death. Leibovitz acknowledged that she and the late Sontag were romantically involved. When asked why she used terms like "companion" to describe Sontag, instead of more specific ones like "partner" or "lover", Leibovitz finally said that "lover" was fine with her. She later repeated the assertion in stating to the San Francisco Chronicle: "Call us 'lovers'. I like 'lovers.' You know, 'lovers' sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan."

Friend, poet, activist, Radical Faerie, former White Crane Managing Editor and co-creator of this Daily GayWisdom, DAN VERA, was born in South Texas on this day. He has studied and received degrees in history, anthropology, theology, and justice & peace studies. He is a graduate of Southwestern University and Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

In Vera’s early 20s Pablo Neruda "whispered in his ear" and his world went Technicolor. Consequently he's had a hard time seeing in black and white ever since. A writer of poetry for over a decade, his poetry has been featured in Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church, DC Poets Against The War: An Anthology, Red Wheelbarrow, and Raddish and the chapbook, Crepusculario. His poetry has also been featured on Pacifica Radio's nationally broadcast Democracy Now program. He is a founding member of Brookland Area Writers & Artists and a member of the Triangle Artists Group and Poets Against the War.  Most recently he won the Oscar Wilde Poetry Prize. Dan is also an accomplished watercolorist.

Dan has worked in advocacy for working poor and homeless people in Denver, Colorado, and as field director and trainer for the LGBT-welcoming Reconciling Ministries Network in the United Methodist Church. In 2000 Dan authored the groundbreaking statement "United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church" which lead to the first denominational people of color organization for LGBT inclusion, which he served as director. He served as poetry editor for RFD magazine.

He’s a hell of a knitter, a fine, sweet friend and an indispensible colleague. His other interests include cooking, gardening and occasionally walking the dog. He lives in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC with his husband Peter Montgomery and their dog Blossom. The Tejano Cubano Radical Faerie poet had been a contributor to White Crane since 1998 and as its managing editor oversaw its redesign in the Summer of 2003. He has recorded his work for Grace Cavalieri's Poet and the Poem program at the Library of Congress.

Check it out here: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetpoem.html

Dan won the Red Hen Press Letras Latinas Prize for his book, Speaking Wiri Wiri. It can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Wiri-Dan-Vera/dp/1597092746

ROCK HUDSON, American actor died (b. 1925); Hudson’s death from HIV/AIDS changed the face of AIDS in the United States.

Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.