June 3rd

06-03-1967 Anderson Cooper – Born in New York, New York. He is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt. American journalist, author, and TV personality and reality television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360. Co0per is openly gay; according to the New York Times, he is “the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television. On July 2, 2012, he gave Andrew Sullivan permission to publish an email that stated, in part: “I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh person and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something – something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true. …The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.” Cooper and his boyfriend, gay bar owner Benjamin Maisani, have been dating since 2009. In March 2018, Cooper confirmed that he and Maisani had broken up. On April 30, 2020, Cooper announced the birth of his son Wyatt Morgan by a surrogate. Though Cooper and Maisani are no longer together, they plan to co-parent Wyatt. 

06-03-1879 – 07-13-1945 Alla Nazimova (Miriam Edez Adelaide Leventon) – Born in Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire. She was a Russian-American film and theater actress, screenwriter and producer. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1927. Nazimova was considered the greatest performer of Ibsen on Broadway. She was also influential in the film industry in the silent era and continued to play character roles until the end of her life. From 1912 to 1925 Nazimova maintained a “lavender marriage” with Charles Bryant, a British-born actor. Between the years 1917 and 1922 Nazimova wielded considerable influence and power in Hollywood. She was extremely generous to young actresses in whom she saw talent and became involved with at least some of them romantically. She helped start the careers of both Rudolph Valentino’s wives, Jean Acker and Natacha Rambova. She did have an affair with Jean Acker and there were rumors that she was also involved with Natacha Rambova. Of those Nazimova is confirmed to have been involved with romantically, the list includes actress Eva Le Gallienne, director Dorothy Arzner, writer Mercedes de Acosta and Oscar Wilde’s niece, Dolly Wilde. Bridget Bate Tichenor, a Magic Realist artist and Surrealist painter, was also rumored to be one of Nazimova’s favored lovers in Hollywood from 1940 to 1942. It is believed that Nazimova coined the phrase “sewing circle” as code to refer to lesbian or bisexual actresses of her day who concealed their true sexuality. She lived with Glesca Marshall from 1929 until her death in 1945. Her contributions to the film industry earned her a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

06-03-1906 – 04-12-1975 Josephine Baker – Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri. She was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Rumored to be her lovers: Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada “Bricktop” Smith and Mildred Smallwood. Also, Colette, author of Gigi, and Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. She became the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville. On October 2, 1925, she opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. She became an instant success for her erotic dancing. Baker became the most successful American entertainer working in France. Despite her popularity in France, she never attained the equivalent reputation in America. Upon returning to Pairs in 1937, she married a Jewish Frenchman, Jean Lion, and became a French citizen. During WWII, as an entertainer, Baker had a reason for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations such as Portugal and some countries in South America. She carried information for transmission to England about airfields, harbors, and German troop concentrations in the West of France. It would be written in invisible ink on her sheet music. After the war, she received the Croix de guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. Baker worked with the NAACP. Her reputation as a crusader grew to such as extent that the NAACP had Sunday, May 20, 1951 declared Josephine Baker Day. She was presented with life membership of the NAACP by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Ralph Bunche. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Her adopted son, Jean-Claude Baker, describes his mother as bisexual, having had relationships with men and women. On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue in Paris celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed notably by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. The opening night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Basses, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli. Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to a hospital where she died on April 12, 1975. She is the only American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral.

06-03-1926 – 04-04-1997 Allen Ginsberg – Born in Newark, New Jersey. He was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. Best known for his epic poem Howl. In 1957, Howl attracted widespread publicity when it became the subject of an obscenity trail, as to depicted heterosexual and homosexual sex at a time the sodomy laws made homosexual acts a crime in every U.S. state. Howl reflected Ginsberg’s own homosexuality and his relationships with a number of men, including his lifelong partner, Peter Oriovsky. Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that Howl was not obscene, adding, “Would there be any freedom of press of speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemisms?” Ginsberg was a practicing Buddhist. One of his most influential teachers was the Tibetan Buddhist, Chögyam Trungpa. At his urging, Ginsberg and poet Anne Waldman started The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 1974. Ginsberg took part in decades of non-violent political protest against everything from the Vietnam War to the War on Drugs. His collection The Fall of America shared the annual U.S. National Book Award for Poetry in 1974. In 1979 he received the National Arts Club gold medal and was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Ginsberg was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995 for his book Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986-1992. He was a bridge between the Beat generation of the 1950s and the Hippies of the 1960s.

06-03-1949 Ian Gelder – Born in England, place unknown. He is an English actor. He in known for his numerous stage and screen roles, including Mr. Dekker in Torchwood: Children of Earth and Kevan Lannister in Game of Thrones. He is openly gay. Gelder’s partner is actor Ben Daniels. They met in 1993 while they were both involved in a production of Entertaining Mr. Sloane.