Pixar's classic animated film about a lonely robot left with the monumental task of cleaning up Earth after being completely trashed and abandoned, WALL-E was released into US theaters June 27, 2008. It's science fiction, action, and romance all rolled into one.
It is widely considered one of the best animated movies of all time. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, Boston Society of Film Critics Best Animated Film, BAFTA's Best Animated Film, a Saturn for Best Animated Film, two Grammys, and one Scream Award.
In 2021, WALL-E became the second Pixar film to be selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Seated (L-R): Vladimir Dezhurov, Robert Gibson, Anatoly Solovyev
Standing (L-R): Norman Thagard, Gennady Strekalov, Gregory Harbaugh, Ellen Baker,Charles Precourt,Bonnie Dunbar, Nikolai Budarin
STS-71 mission patch
Atlantis (STS-71), launched June 27, 1995, was the first Space Shuttle to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. Its crew consisted of Commander Robert Gibson, Pilot Charles Precourt, Ellen Baker, Gregory Harbaugh, and Bonnie Dunbar. It delivered two cosmonauts, Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin, to Mir to participate in Expedition EO-19, and return with members of EO-18.
The mission included filming with an IMAX camera, the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II), and to conduct biomedical investigations. Some of these experiments covered cardiovascular and pulmonary functions, human metabolism, neuroscience, hygiene, sanitation, radiation, and behavioral performance.
Atlantis undocked from Mir on July 4, and returned to Earth with the original crew, Gennady Strekalov, Vladimir Dezhurov, and Norman Thagard. The shuttle's crew spent almost 10 days in space.
Frank Kameny, born May 21, 1925 in New York City, was an early gay advocate and one of the most significant figures in the history of the American gay rights movement. He enlisted in the US Army in May 1943 and, after finishing basic training, sent to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study mechanical engineering. Kameny was withdrawn from the program to prepare for an invasion of France. He was sent to the frontlines where he served as an infantry private.
After the war, he enrolled at Harvard University and graduated with a Master's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in 1956 in astronomy. In August 1956, he was "detained" in San Francisco after being accused of "lewd and indecent acts".
A year later, Kameny was hired by the US Army Map Service, but when they heard of his arrest in San Francisco he was fired. He appealed his firing through the courts and even the US Supreme Court, but never won a case. He devoted himself to activism.
Kameny's pushback against the government's policy on gay employees was the first of its kind, arguing that discrimination on the basis of sexuality is no different from discrimination based on race or religion.
In 1961, he co-founded the Washington DC branch of the Mattachine Society. He campaigned to overturn DC sodomy laws in 1963, and was finally successful in 1993. He also worked to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association.
He represented and defended government employees who had their security revoked or suspended due to allegations of "perversion" or immoral acts".
Kameny ran for US Congress in 1971 in DC's first election for a non-voting Congressional delegate, the first gay to run for Congress, but lost unfortunately. After his defeat, he created the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Washington, DC, which still lobbies the government and pushes for equal rights.
The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame was created in June 1991, originally as the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. It is dedicated to LGBT people, organizations, and communities in the US who have made significant contributions to the quality of life or well-being of the LGBT community in Chicago.
The HoF does not have a physical facility, but maintains a website for people to visit at any time. In 2016, its name was changed to Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
Some of the inductees are:
Chuck Renslow, co-founder of Gold Coast, one of the first gay leather bars in the world.
Dom Orejudos, dancer, choreographer, and artist of masculine gay male erotica
Proud Black Lesbians and Gays
Lionheart Gay Theater and Company, which hosts LGBT themed works
Greg Harris, gay politician
Larry McKeon, first gay Illinois state senator
International Mr. Leather
Many straight people and transgender people are honored each year.
Raja Chari, born June 24, 1977 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, went into space aboard SpaceX Crew-3 to the International Space Station. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1999, and attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma. In December 2020, he was selected for the Artemis Team, to help pave the way back to the moon.
He was commander of the SpaceX Crew-3 in the Endurance, launched November 11, 2021 to the ISS. He participated in Expeditions 66-67 and conducted 2 EVAs, lasting a total of almost 14 hours, during his stay. Chari returned to Earth in May 2022 after 174 days in space.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the continuation of the Star Wars series, was nominated for a whopping 15 Saturn Awards, the most nominated film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, and won eight at the annual ceremony held June 22, 2016.
The film won:
Best Science Fiction Film
Best Writing for Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams and Michael Arndt
Best Actor for Harrison Ford
Best Supporting Actor for Adam Driver
Best Music for John Williams
Best Editing for Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Best Make-up for Neal Scanlan
Best Special Effects for Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach,Neal Scanlan, and Chris Corbould
The Force Awakens was nominated for:
Best Director for J. J. Abrams
Best Actor for John Boyega
Best Actress for Daisy Ridley
Best Supporting Actress for Carrie Fisher and Lupita Nyong'o
Best Production Design for Rick Carter and Darren Gilford
Singer/actress/songwriter/activist Cyndi Lauper, born June 22, 1953 in Queens, New York, has won a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy! Just one more to go, Cyndi!
Cyndi released her first album She's So Unusual in October 1983.It debuted on the charts in December 1983 and peaked at No. 4 in June 1984. It was the one of the best-selling albums of 1984. She won a Grammy for Best New Artist and She's So Unusual won the Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
She had an uncredited cameo in The Goonies, but then had a starring role in the movie Vibes with Jeff Goldblum in 1988. Cyndi had a reoccurring role on Mad About You, for which she received two Primetime Emmy nominations and won one in 1995 for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.
In 2013, she won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for the composing the music for Kinky Boots. It was the first time a woman had won the award by herself.
She has become an outspoken advocate for gay rights and women's rights.
Laurel Hubbard, born February 9, 1978 in Auckland, New Zealand, became the first openly transgender athlete selected to compete the Olympic Games.
Prior to her transition, Laurel set junior records in weightlifting in 1998, but stated she had ceased lifting in 2001 saying it became to much to bear, trying to fit into a world that wasn't set up for transgendered people.
She transitioned to female in 2012 and in 2017 competed in international weightlifting for the first time at the Australian International & Australian Open, winning the gold medal in the heaviest +90 kg category. She was the first trans woman to win an international weightlifting title for New Zealand.
In 2019, she won two gold medals at the Pacific Games in Samoa. In 2020, she won the gold medal in the women's +87 kg even at the Roma 2020 World Cup.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowed the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) set the requirements for transgender weightlifters to compete at the Olympics. On June 21, 2021, the New Zealand Olympic Committee determined Hubbard met all the requirements and selected her to be the first open transgender athlete to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games, set for Tokyo in 2021.
Unfortunately, she was also the oldest weightlifter at 43, to compete at the Olympics and she placed last in her group.
Hunky, adorable Chris Pratt, born June 21, 1979 in Virginia, Minnesota, has appeared in many blockbuster action movies. His first big acting job came in 2002 when he starred with Treat Williams in Everwood. Then in 2014, he landed the role of Peter Quill in the Guardians of the Galaxy, which has spawned two sequels. As Quill, he has appeared in other MCU movies with the Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder. He appeared in the second Jurassic Park trilogy.
He won a Saturn Award in 2015 for his performance in Guardians of the Galaxy. He is currently voicing the character of Garfield in The Garfield Movie.
Les Mouches fantastiques (The Fantastic Flies) was the first LGBT publication in North American history, being published between 1918-1920. It was an underground magazine based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It started from a writing circle established by Elsa Gidlow (poet) and Roswell George Mills as its primary contributors. It included poetry and non-fiction about gay and lesbian issues, such as identity, politics, and editorials.
Only five issues of Les Mouches fantastiques were ever published, but it had a wide distribution, receiving correspondence as far away as Havana, Cuba. It was discontinued when Gidlow and Mills moved to New York City in 1920.
James Buchli, born June 20, 1945 in New Rockford, North Dakota, flew into space four times with NASA's Space Shuttle program. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1967 and received a commission in the US Marine Corps. He served in the Vietnam War as a Platoon Commander with the 9th Marine Regiment, and then for B Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion. He returned to the US in 1969 and completed his training as a naval flight officer.
Buchli was chosen as an astronaut in 1979. His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51-C) as mission specialist in January 1985. The mission was dedicated to the US Department of Defense, and he returned to Earth after just over 3 days in space.
His second mission was aboard Challenger (STS-61-A) as flight engineer in October-November 1985, the last successful mission of the Challenger. He spent seven days in space.
Buchlil's third mission was aboard Discovery (STS-29) as mission specialist in March 1989 to insert a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into orbit. He spent almost 5 days in space before returning to Earth.
His fourth and final mission was aboard Discovery (STS-48) as mission specialist in September 1991 to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). He returned to Earth after more than 5 days in space.
James "Jim" Foster, born November 19, 1934, was an LGBT rights advocate in the early years of the gay rights movement. He had been discharged from the US Army for being gay in 1959, and moved to San Francisco. In 1974, he co-founded the Society for Individual Rights (SIR), which helped Dianne Feinstein be elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969.
In 1974, SIR was changed to the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club, the first gay Democratic club in the US. Foster helped Richard Hongisto win his run for sheriff in 1971 by delivering the gay votes.
In 1972, the Toklas club delivered one-third of signatures needed to secure George McGovern on the California Democratic Ballot. Foster and Madeline Davis (lesbian activist) were asked to speak at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, becoming the first LGBT people to address a national party convention.
In 1980, Foster was the coordinator for northern California for Ted Kennedy's presidential campaign, helping him win the 1980 California primary.
Jim Foster died from an AIDS-related illness in October 1990.
ITV Play of the Week was a British anthology series which ran from 1955-1974, airing about 500 hundred 90-minute episodes. The thirteenth episode of the fifth season, South, is considered to be the first gay drama on television. It is the story of a Polish Army lieutenant Jan Wicziewsky, played by Peter Wyngarde, exiled to the deep South prior to the Civil War. He meets and falls in love with a tall, handsome, blond officer Eric MacClure, played by Graydon Gould.
Of course, reviews were mixed, with one reviewer describing it as "the agonies and ecstasies of a pervert". However, others were more objective in their criticism. The Stage reported that the "dialogue was so full of compassion, understanding and tenderness that his subject didn't seem distasteful".
The episode was based on a play by Julien Green, who is gay. The play was set to be performed in London in 1955, but the Lord Chamberlain banned it because of its gay themes, but he had mellowed out by 1959, and Gerald Savory adapted it for television.
Bert I. Gordon's directorial debut, King Dinosaur, was released upon American audiences June 17, 1955. It was the first of his "low-budget special effects extravaganza" and was not received well. Its a story of four astronauts sent to investigate a planet that has entered the solar system. They discover a host of Earth-like creatures, many of them much larger than their terran counterparts. Stock footage was included, but the quality it was as poor as Gordon's movie.
Joel and the bots riffed King Dinosaur during the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I want to know is, if they escaped from the "King Dinosaur", why blow it up? If you're already clear, and he isn't coming after you, get in your rocket and leave.
Shenzhou 12 crew (L-R): Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming
Shenzhou 12 mission patch
Shenzhou 12, launched June 17, 2021, carried three taikonauts on the first flight to the Tiangong space station. It was also the first crewed Chinese flight since Shenzhou 11 in 2016. Its crew consisted of Commander Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo. The crew conducted two EVAs during their stay.
Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo conducted the first spacewalk on July 4, completing installation of the station's robotic arm, and installed exterior equipment for use on future missions. Their EVA lasted 6 hours 46 minutes.
The two taikonauts conducted a second EVA on August 20 to test spacecraft equipment, install a backup thermal control pump, and installed and raised panoramic camera D on the Tianhe core module. The EVA lasted almost 6 hours.
The crew returned to Earth on September 17, after more than 92 days in space.
On June 17, 2011, the United Nations passed a resolution endorsing the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender people, expressing "grave concern" about abuses suffered by people because of their sexual orientation. It was herald as a remarkable shift on the LGBT issue, which has divided the entire world for decades.
Then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton stated that "This represents a historic moment to highlight the human rights abuses and violations that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face around the world based solely on who they are and whom they love."
Dame Angela Lansbury won her first of many Tony Awards at the 20th annual ceremony, June 16, 1966. She originated the role of Mame Dennis in the musical Mame. Mame had been nominated for eight Tony Awards. Sweet Charity was nominated for nine, and Man of La Mancha got seven nominations.
Angela won Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. Bea Arthur won Best Performance by a Supporting or Featured Actress in a Musical. Frankie Michaels won Best Performance by a Supporting or Featured Actor in Musical.
Jeffrey Ashby, born June 16, 1954 in Dallas, Texas, has been into space three times. He served in the navy, flying combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Southern Watch, and Operation Continue Hope.
His first space flight was aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-93) as pilot in July 1999. He returned to Earth after almost 4 days in space.
His second mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-100) as pilot to the International Space Station in April-May 2001. He returned to Earth after almost 12 days.
His third and final mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-112) as commander to the International Space Station in October 2002. He returned to Earth after almost 11 days in space.
Intended as a country version of Laugh-In, Hee Haw aired its first episode June 15, 1969. Buck Owens and Roy Clark hosted the show, which featured comic skits, jokes, and country music. Hee Haw helped boost careers of many budding music stars.
Loretta Lynn and Charley Pride appeared in the first episode. The series ran for twenty-six seasons, finally wrapping up in 2003.
Tentacles, one of the first of many knock-offs of Jaws, was released in US theaters June 15, 1977. It focuses on another deep-sea creature run amok. In the fashion of It Came from Beneath the Sea, a giant octopus rises from the depths to terrorize a California seaside town.
It was an Italian production which starred Shelley Winters, Henry Fonda, and Claude Akins. Although it was a box office success at the time, grossing $3,000,000, but critics were not kind. It received a 0% rating from Rotten Tomatoes.
Although gay men have always been a part of Hollywood, they were still forced into the closet, made to marry women, and play 'butch' roles. Same-sex relationships were usually poorly kept secrets, but still very few acknowledged being gay.
So it was significant that Neil Patrick Harris, who celebrates his birthday today, became the first gay man to host the Academy Awards, when he hosted the 87th annual ceremony in 2015.
Harris has been in a committed relationship with David Burtka, a stage and screen actor, since 2004. In 2010, their twins Gideon Scott and daughter Harper Grace were born via a surrogate. They announced their engagement in October 2011, when same-sex marriages became legal.
The Trevor Life Award, which honors an individual who, through his or her example, support, volunteerism and/or occupation, is an inspiration to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Questioning youth" was presented to Harris in 2009. The organization representing the award is the Trevor Project, which helps LGBT youth considering suicide or facing rejection from their families.
Adam Graham, the youngest and first gay mayor of The Village, Oklahoma, resigned after only two months in office because he become the target of threats that were getting more violent. Graham, elected in May 2022, sent a letter to the city manager that he had been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking his dog, and his tires had been slashed.
He said it had been a "great privilege to break boundaries", but he no longer felt safe to serve as mayor.
Mariner 5, launched June 14, 1967, carried a cadre of instruments to Venus, to study its atmosphere and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet. It had been built as a backup to Mariner 4, a Mars probe, but the Mariner 4 project was a success, NASA modified Mariner 5 to study Venus during the 1967 Venus launch window.
Mariner 5 flew by Venus on October 19, 1967 at an altitude of 2480 miles, and determined that the surface was hotter and the atmosphere denser than previous studies had indicated.
Between April and November 1968, NASA tried to contact Mariner 5 to reacquire a signal for probing interplanetary conditions. A signal was received in October, but the they had no success in gaining an uplink signal, so there was no possibility of fixing or continuing its use. Operations were terminated November 5, 1968. Mariner 5 remains in a heliocentric orbit.
ONE, Inc. published and distributed ONE: The Homosexual Magazine starting in 1953, an early pro-gay publication. The US Post Office and the FBI began a campaign of harassment and LA Postmaster Otto Olesen declared the October 1954 issue "obscene, lewd, lascivious, and filthy" and refused to mail it citing the Comstock Act of 1873.
Attorney Eric Julber filed a suit against the postmaster in US District Court, seeking an injunction. In March 1956 US District Judge Thurmond Clarke ruled for the Olesen, stating that homosexuals should not be granted special privileges.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in February 1957. Julber filed a petition with the US Supreme Court on June 13, 1957. On January 13, 1958, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's decision. It was the first Supreme Court ruling to deal with homosexuality and the first to address free speech rights with respect to homosexuality.
Hayabusa (not to be confused with Hayabusa 2) returned to Earth after visiting the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa, June 13, 2010. Launched in 2003, it was the first spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid and then take off again.
Scientists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) studied particles taken from Itokawa, most of which were about 10 micrometers in size. They determined that the grains were extraterrestrial in origin, meaning they resembled meteorites and asteroids, rather than known rocks from Earth.
Raiders of the Lost Ark, the blockbuster collaboration between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, was released into theaters June 12, 1981. The film is a throwback to the black & white cliffhangers of previous years. It follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), an archaeologist, who tries to keep the Ark of the Covenant, the last known resting place of the original ten commandments, from getting into the hands of the Nazis.
Raiders of the Lost Ark was the number one at the box office the weekend it opened. It dropped from the #1 spot for a few weeks, but by the sixth weekend it was back at #1. It spent most of the next nine weeks at the number one spot, and was the top box office film of the summer.
Raiders won five Oscars and seven Saturn Awards. Om 1999, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
John Curry, born September 9, 1949 in Birmingham, England, won the coveted Grand Slam in figure skating in 1976. He is the first male figure skater from Great Britain to win an Olympic Gold, which he won at the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck. That year he won the European, World, and British championships.
Shortly after his win at the Olympics and before the World Championships, Curry confirmed he was gay at a press conference in Innsbruck. Apparently there was a brief scandal in Europe at the time, but his sexual orientation was ignored by the press and the public.
Curry passed away due to complications from AIDS in 1994.
I'm Your Boogie Man by KC and the Sunshine Band's fourth album Part 3, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 June 11, 1977. It was well received by music critics with John Rockwell saying, "another alluring, catchy, sleepily kinetic dance" and Record World stating that "it's poised to go all the way".
It reached #3 on the Billboard Soul Chart and Billboard ranked it as the #11 song of 1977. It is certified gold in the US.
Steven Spielberg's horror/comedy classic, Gremlins, was nominated for nine Saturn Awards and won five at the 12th annual ceremony, held June 9, 1985.
It won Best Horror Film, beating Firestarter, Dreamscape, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Polly Holliday (Flo on Alice) won Best Supporting Actress, beating Dame Judith Anderson for her performance in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Joe Dante won Best Director and Jerry Goldsmith won Best Music. Gremlins won Best Special Effects for Chris Walas.
Corey Feldman was nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, along with Drew Barrymore for Firestarter and Ke Huy Quan for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Dick Miller was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Chris Columbus was nominated for Best Writing and Greg LaCava was nominated for Best Make-up.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was nominated for six awards but did not win any of them. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was nominated for seven awards but did not win either.
William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut, passed away June 7 when his T-34 vintage aircraft crashed into Puget Sound, Washington. Anders took the iconic photo of the Earth rising over the moon. He was 90 years old.
Luna 6, launched June 8, 1965, was a Soviet spacecraft, intended to land on the moon. The next day, Luna 6's main engine ignited for a planned mid-course correction. However, it failed to cut off and continued to fire, until its fuel had been depleted. Luna 6 passed by the moon on June 11 at a distance of almost 100K miles.
Bruce McCandless II, born June 8, 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts, went into space twice. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1958, and received flight training from the Naval Air Training Command in Pensacola, Florida and in Kingsville, Texas.
He was selected as an astronaut in the NASA Astronaut Group 5 at age 28, the youngest member of the group. He served as mission control capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during Apollo 11. He served as CAPCOM for Apollo 14, as well as astronaut support crew. He was reassigned to the Skylab program, serving as CAPCOM for Skylab 3 and Skylab 4.
His first mission was aboard Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41-B) as mission specialist in February 1984. During the mission he performed the first untethered spacewalk, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), traveling 322 ft away from the shuttle. He spent eight days in space.
His second mission was aboard Discovery (STS-31) as mission specialist in April 1990. He was planning to conduct an EVA with fellow astronaut Kathryn Sullivan to fix and array that could not be deployed through ground control, but the problem was fixed without the need of an EVA. He returned to Earth after 5 days in space.
Lili Elbe, born Einar Wegener December 28, 1882 in Vejle, Denmark, was a transgender woman, who is the first person to receive a uterus transplant. She began painting under her birth name and married Gerda Gottlieb in 1904. Gottlieb was also a painter and she and Lili moved to Paris in 1912, where Elbe cold live more openly as a woman, passing herself off as Gottlieb's sister-in-law.
Elbe considered suicide before learning about sex reassignment surgery, which was highly experimental at the time. In 1930, she traveled to the Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science in Germany, and went through four surgeries. The first was a removal of the testicles, and the second implanted an ovary into her abdomen. The third operation removed the penis and the scrotum.
The fourth surgery which took place in 1931 was for Elbe to receive a transplant uterus and construct a vaginal canal, making her one of the first transgender woman to under go a vaginoplasty surgery. Her immune system rejected the transplanted uterus, causing an infection. She died in September 1931 three months after the surgery.
The LGBTQ+ film festival MIX Copenhagen gives out four Lili Awards each year, named for Elbe. She painted many successful images before stopping after the transition.
Venera 16, a Soviet spacecraft to Venus launched June 7, 1983, entered into orbit around the planet just one day after its twin sister Venera 15, although Venera 15 was launched only 5 days earlier. Venera 16 entered a nearly polar orbit and, together with its twin, they mapped about 25% of Venus's surface over the course of 8 months. The last data received from Venera 16 was on June 13, 1985.
Although nominated for 10 Saturn Awards, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace garnered only two of the trophies at the Academy of Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy's 26th annual ceremony June 6, 2000.
The first chapter in the Star Wars saga took home the awards for Best Costumes for Trisha Biggar and Best Special Effects. Liam Neeson was nominated for Best Actor for his performance as Qui-Gon Jinn. Ewan McGregor was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Pernilla August was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as Shmi Skywalker. Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman were both nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress. George Lucas was nominated as Best Director. The Phantom Menace received nominations for the Best Science Fiction Film and for Best Make-up.
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, a play by Tony Kushner, won four Tony Awards at the 47th annual ceremony, held June 6, 1993. The play focuses on homosexuality and AIDS in the US during the 1980s. It premiered on Broadway in 1993.
The play received much controversy due to the blunt treatment of AIDS, homosexuality, and male nudity, leading to funding cuts for art funding in some cities. But Angels in America was received well by critics and it won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
It took home honors for Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for Ron Leibman, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for Stephen Spinella, and Best Direction of a Play for George C. Wolfe. Angels was also nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for Joe Mantello, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for Kathleen Chalfant, and Best Scenic Design.
Also that night, Madeline Kahn won Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in The Sisters Rosenweig. Andrea Martin won Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in My Favorite Year.
Advocates for LGBT rights organized two sit-ins at the popular Dewey's Restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On April 25, 1965, about 150 LGBT demonstrators walked into Dewey's and refused to leave in the name of civil rights. This was in response to Dewey's recent policy claiming it would not serve homosexuals, masculine women, or feminine men. Nor would they serve persons wearing "nonconformist clothing". Three people were arrested.
On May 2, 1965, protestors staged a second sit-in at Dewey's. No arrests happened this time and Dewey's reversed their policy. The incidents helped forge a path toward the gay rights movement.
In October 2018, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission erected a historical marker to commemorate the sit-in.
Annie, which debuted on Broadway of April 1977, won seven Tony Awards at the 31st annual ceremony June 5, 1977. I've never seen the stage production, but I did see the movie version with Albert Finney, Anne Reinking, and Carol Burnett.
The 1977 Broadway version won Tonys for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical for Thomas Meehan, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Dorothy Loudon (as Miss Hannigan), Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre for Charles Strouse (music) and Martin Charnin (lyrics), Best Choreography for Peter Gennaro, Best Scenic Design for David Mitchell, and Best Costume Design for Theoni Aldredge.
Annie had also been nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Reid Shelton (as Daddy Warbucks), Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Andrea McArdle (as Annie), and Best Direction of a Musical for Martin Charnin.
STS-111 crew (L-R): Philippe Perrin, Paul Lockhart, Kenneth Cockrell, Franklin Chang Diaz
STS-111 mission patch
Expedition 5 crew (L-R): Valery Korzun, Peggy Whitson, Sergei Treshchov
Expedition 4 crew (L-R): Daniel Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko, Carl Walz
Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-111), launched June 5, 2002, carried members of Expedition 5 to the International Space Station. Endeavour's crew consisted of Commander Kenneth Cockrell, Pilot Paul Lockhart, Philippe Perrin (CNES), and Franklin Chang Diaz on his seventh and final flight. The members of Expedition 5 consisted of Valery Korzun (Roscosmos), Peggy Whitson, and Sergei Treshchov (Roscosmos).
Chang Diaz and Perrin conducted three EVAs during the mission. Endeavour returned to Earth after almost two weeks in space with the members of Expedition 4: Yuri Onufrienko (Roscosmos), Carl Walz, and Daniel Bursch.
Jim Roth, born December 24, 1968 in Prairie Village, Kansas near Kansas City, was elected as Oklahoma County Commissioner in 2002, and re-elected in 2006. He became the first ever openly gay person to hold a statewide elected office in Oklahoma.
He served as one of three members of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission from June 2007-January 2009. He is now a professor of law at OCU's School of Law.
Robert "Shane" Kimbrough, born June 4, 1967 in Killeen, Texas, has been in space three times.
He graduated from the US Military Academy and flew Apache helicopters in the Operation Desert Storm. He joined NASA in 2000 and was part of the first group of astronauts selected following the Columbia disaster.
His first mission into space was aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in November 2008. He conducted two EVAs, lasting a total of almost 13 hours. He spent almost 16 days in space.
Kimbrough's second trip into space was aboard Soyuz MS-02 as flight engineer to the ISS in October 2016. He participated in Expeditions 49-50. He carried a soccer ball belonging to Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Challenger disaster to the ISS. He returned to Earth in April 2017, after over 173 days in space.
His third mission into space was aboard SpaceX Crew-2 as commander to the ISS in April 2021 to the ISS. He participated in Expeditions 65-66. He returned to Earth in November 2021, after more than 199 days in space, the longest US mission to date.
Not Swann, but an image from a drag ball during that time.
William Dorsey Swann, born into slavery in Hancock, Maryland in March 1860, is the first person in the US to lead a queer resistance group and self-identify as a "queen of drag". After the Civil War, his parents bought a farm and began a job working as a hotel waiter.
During the 1880s and 1890s, Swann organized drag balls in Washington, DC and called himself the "queen of drag". The men attending these drag balls were usually former slaves and rebel drag queens. These events were very secretive and only communicated by word of mouth.
On April 12, 1888, he was arrested for female impersonation, the first documented case of such. Swann stood up to the arresting officer and proclaimed, "You is no gentleman."
By choosing to resist instead of go along passively, Swann's arrest is one of the earliest-known instances of violence in the name of gay rights.
The publicity and public shaming made it even more difficult for Swann to throw his secret drag balls.
Swann stopped organizing drag balls in the 1890s, but his two brothers continued to participate in the drag community for almost 50 years.
Swann passed away in December 1925 in Hancock, Maryland.
Gennadi Manakov, born June 1, 1950 in the former Soviet Union, went into space twice.
His first mission was aboard Soyuz TM-10 as commander to the space station Mir. He spent almost 131 days in space, from August to December 1990 before returning to Earth.
His second and final flight was aboard Soyuz TM-16 as commander to Mir. He spent 179 days in space, from January-July 1993, before returning to Earth.
