March/April

26 Sunday

Easter Sunday

American-born Benjamin Thompson, who was the love object of British Colonial Secretary Lord George Germain and eventually became a titled physicist, Count Rumford, discoverer of the causes of smoky chimneys, born in North Woburn, Massachusetts, 1753.

27 Monday

Alfred de Vigny, author of a novel about the nineteen-year-old lover of Louis XIII, Cinq-Mars, born at Loches (Indre-et-Loire), 1797.

28 Tuesday

After demanding the return of his testicles which had been removed as a "cure" for his homosexuality, Chicagoan Guy T. Olmstead shoots his mailman-lover, William F. Clifford, but is apprehended before he can kill himself, 1894.

29 Wednesday

The United States Supreme Court rules that states may prosecute and imprison people for committing homosexual acts in private even if they are consenting adults, 1976.

30 Thursday

Paul Verlaine, French poet who, in one of the most famous lovers' quarrels in literary history, shot Arthur Rimbaud for his infidelities, born in Metz, 1844.

31 Friday

I melt

This day is given to the Greek poet Pindar (fl. 450 B.C.), whose specific dates are lost in history and who celebrated his love for young Theoxenus of Tenedos and others in superb lyrics ("Like wax before the sun, when I see the supple limbs of boys").

1 Saturday

Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, transvestite governor of New Jersey and New York, who posed for his official portrait in white gloves and blue ball gown, dies in London, 1723.

Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury:

In old New York, the governor wore drag.