Elton John released the album Honky Chateau in the U.K.
May 19, 1975
Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” album was released U.S. It was the first album to be certified a million-seller on its first day of release. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which certifies official album sales, reports that the album was released May 19, and the RIAA certified the album Gold on May 21. As great an album as ‘Captain Fantastic’ is, it is physically impossible for an album to be certified Gold if it hasn’t been released yet. The LP’s Platinum status was certified in 1993.
1978
The disco film “Thank God It’s Friday,” starring Debra Winger, Jeff Goldblum, Donna Summer, Valerie Landsburg, Chick Vennera, and Terri Nunn, premiered in New York City.
1979
The closest thing to a Beatles’ reunion happened when Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr played together at Eric Clapton’s wedding reception The bride, Patti Boyd, was formerly married to George Harrison. Joining them for a jam session were Clapton, Mick Jagger and Ginger Baker. . The all-star band ran through old Little Richard and Eddie Cochran songs.
ABBA started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Voulez-Vous’ the group’s fourth No.1 album.
on the USA LP charts We Are Family from Sister Sledge at #7 and Go West by the Village People at 8
1990
Madonna started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Vogue’. Originally planned as a B-side, it became the singers eighth US No.1 and seventh UK No.1 hit.
“Vogue” became Madonna’s eighth #1 song on this date, taking over from “Nothing Compares 2 (sic) U (sic) by Sinead O’Connor.
1998
Sonny And Cher receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, seventeen months after Sonny was killed in a skiing accident.
2001
The $20 million waterpark Dollywood’s Splash Countryopened on 25 acres near the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
2018
Elton John performed at the wedding reception of England’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, playing “Your Song”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Circle of Life” and “I’m Still Standing”.
In London, a public reading was given of Bram Stoker’s new novel, “Dracula, or, The Un-dead.”
Dracula followed the Varney the Vampire chapbooks, led to many books, movies, tv shows and the eventual portrayal of lesbians as predatory vampires when not suicides in movies to restore heteronormativity.
1963
Lesley Gore‘s “It’s My Party” enters Billboard’s Top 40, where it will reach #1. It will also become a Top Ten hit in the UK.
ABC aired the Elton John television special “Say Goodbye To Norma Jean And Other Things.”
May 17, 1975
Elton John was awarded a Platinum record for his album “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy”. It was the first L.P. to sell one million copies on its first day of release.
song charts at #6 Have You Never Been Mellow from Olivia Newton-John, with the Soundtrack to “Funny Lady” at #7,
1978
Donna Summer’s film Thank God It’s Friday premiered in Los Angeles.
ABC-TV aired two music specials, “The Carpenters: Space Encounters,” with guests John Davidson and Charlie Callas, and then “Olivia,” hosted by Olivia Newton-John, with ABBA and Andy Gibb.
1980
“The Rose”, the title song from the movie in which she starred in, was #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for Bette Midler.
1986
Whitney Houston started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Greatest Love Of All’, the singers third US No.1, a No.8 hit in the UK.
Incredibly, Whitney Houston climbed back to #1 on the Album chart in its 60th week of release.
1993
Barry Manilow appears on CBS-TV’s Murphy Brown, where he sang “I Am Your Child”.
1995
Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard performed together on the same stage for the first time at Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England, They were scheduled to appear in London the following night and in Birmingham on May 20, however Domino did not perform at either of those shows due to illness.
2002
The Barry Manilow special, Ultimate Manilow aired on CBS-TV.
2005
Lisa Marie Presley performed “Idiot” on “Good Morning America.”
: Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer.
2010
Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who wrote “Hound Dog”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Love Me”, “Don’t” and many others for Elvis Presley, “Kansas City” for Wilbert Harrison and “Charlie Brown” for the Coasters, were given the Outstanding Achievement Award for Musical Collaborators by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers in Chicago, Illinois.
Jailhouse Rock being a gay song is why this is included.
2012
Donna Summer, the 1970s pop singer known as the Queen of Disco, died of lung cancer, an illness she believed she contracted from inhaling toxic particles released after the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York. She won five Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, and had three multi-platinum albums, including the hits ‘Hot Stuff’, ‘Love to Love You, and ‘Baby’ and ‘I Feel Love’.
Lisa Marie Presley performed her song “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” on American Idol’s results show.
The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
1946
The Irving Berlin musical, “Annie Get Your Gun,” opened at New York’s Imperial Theatre for the first of 1,147 performances.
1990
Jim Henson, The Muppets creator who scored two US Top 30 hits with “Rubber Duckie” in 1970 and “Rainbow Connection” in 1979, died of Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome at the age of 53.
Jul. 23, 2012 — The Muppets are ending their relationship with fast food restaurant chain … GLAAD is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
2000
Britney Spears released her sophomore album, Oops!… I Did It Again. It included tracks like “Stronger” and “Lucky” as well as a cover of The Rolling Stones classic “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and a recording of “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know” co-written by Canada’s Shania Twain.
2013
George Michael suffered minor injuries in a strange incident in London. The pop star reportedly fell out of the passenger seat of a Range Rover.
2016
Irish singer Sinead O’Connor was found safe two days after being reported as missing in Chicago. Her brief disappearance came six just months after a similar incident in November 2015 when she posted a dire note on Facebook where she threatened to commit suicide. Recently, O’Connor accused Arsenio Hall of being Prince’s longtime drug dealer, an accusation that resulted in a $5 million lawsuit from the late-night host.
, George Michael’s great song “One More Try” rose from 14 to 4 and Natalie Cole’s cover of “Pink Cadillac” remained at #5.
Faith by George Michael regained the #1 spot on the Album chart ten weeks after it had fallen from the top. The Soundtrack to “Dirty Dancing” slipped to second, riding on hits from past decades, and an original song by Patrick Swayze but most interestingly a UK gay band The Blow Monkeys doing a cover of Lesbian Leslie Gore’s You Don’t Own Me with original boy lyrics sung by a male band the heteros did not notice.
in retirement, Leslie Gore das yet to come out.
1998
George Michael pled no contest in the Beverly Hills Municipal Court to committing a lewd act in a park restroom. He was fined $810, given 80 hours of community service, and ordered to undergo counseling.
2002
The musical We Will Rock You opened in the West End of London, England at the Dominion Theatre. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben Elton in collaboration with Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought, fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and does the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown. WWRY has since become the longest-running musical at the Dominion Theatre.
2003
Lawyers for Britney Spears and the Skechers footwear company settled a dispute over a deal for the pop star to market a line of roller skates and accessories. Spears had filed a $1.5 million breach of agreement lawsuit against Skechers in December, claiming the company failed to pay her adequately. Skechers had responded with a $10 million lawsuit, accusing Spears of fraud and breach of the three-year licensing agreement she signed in January 2002.
2020
Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher’s son, Beckett, dies at age 21
2021
I expect lesbians to behave better than hetero men
the problem of believing one’s own press? or the delusion of “nice’?
because, as a Canadian Lesbian. “nice” is how my nation is rude.
Ellen began as a lesbian stand up, went into the closet and got her tv show, and then came out, after Melissa Etheridge did at the Democrat convention that saw Bill Clinton get the nom, which she said kd lang inspired her to.
“Pajama Game” opens at St James Theater NYC for 1063 performances
May 13, 1957
Jailhouse RockPrincipal photography began on the jailhouse dance sequence.
1974
Cher released the single “Dark Lady.”
May 13, 1977
Dolly Parton made her New York City debut with a performance at the Bottom Line. Olivia Newton-John, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Candice Bergen, and John Belushi are among those in the audience.
1989
Kylie Minogue was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with her second solo No.1 ‘Hand On Your Heart.’
2019
Doris Day, who scored two Billboard Top Ten hits in 1956 with “Whatever Will Be Will Be” and “Everybody Loves A Lover”, passed away at the age of 97 after contracting pneumonia. Besides making nearly forty movies, she also recorded more than six hundred songs and nearly thirty albums. Along with four movies with Rock Hudson
Known as Lady Day, Billie Holliday charted R&B (#5) with “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” It was her first and only R&B Hit but her last of thirty-nine pop hits that started in 1935.
2003In London, Lisa Marie Presley performed at a nightclub. She performed songs from her debut album “To Whom It May Concern.”
in the 1990s. President Bush The Elder began speaking only to the party base and no longer to the general public and not democratic voters.
“family values” was the phrase and to be president, you had to have wartime military experience, be heterosexually married with children.
“family values” meant not queer, not gay, not lesbian and not transgender. bisexuals were not often mentioned by the mainstream and not much more by gays and lesbians. MtF where heterosexual and FtM barely mentioned.
this was post 1970s androgeny and unisex
lesbians helped hetero women get equal pay for equal work, and reproductive rights, 1979 roe vs wade in the USA and in 1980 as a removal from the criminal code of canada to a health canada administrative matter, if a facility could be found in a religious run hospital boards.
a 1980s case of Chantel Daigle won the right for women in canada, along with the proclaimation of the Charter of Rights putting gender above all other rights.
through the 1980s and 1990s, as gays and lesbians of all ethnicities across the social classes or spectrum, not just the famous, fabulous celebrities or marginaled and creating communities in neighborhoods in larger cities.
when the mainstream learned they might know someone who is … you know.. that way….
imagine if Canada’s charter had included LGBTQ2 in the 1980s, instead of 2003 when marriage equality and 2004 divorce equality was the only laws uniting the British Common law and Napoleonic Code of all three coasts and the 49th, eh.
if the people on the titantic had poked holes in the hull and fire to the furniture okay. maybe. ..
the titantic was a series of engineering and manufacture flaws
while the republicans this was a choice they made to oppress others who were not interested in that same old 1800s through the 1990s and even after the 9/11 geopolitical shift. this is self inflicted.
this is exactly what Queer Nation, ACT Up and The Lesbian Avengers were telling the mainstream in the 1990s that their agenda was – undo all rights advances from roe vs wade to civil rights and when they lost marriage equality, they really stormed government buildings. and erected a gallows
Greg
This is unhelpful. Remember, when you find yourself punching down, you are on the wrong side. It’s important to ask why half the adult population did vote for him. It’s not because they are stupid. They elected Obama in 2008 and 2012. So calling people stupid for voting for Trump is worse than unproductive. It obfuscates the problems within the Democratic Party that led many of these people not to vote Democratic. If you have an interest in NOT looking at these problems, then emphasizing how stupid Trump voters are, or how evil the Russians are, is a good smoke screen to hide behind.
Micheal
So… what… we’re supposed to give the 45aholics a place at the table? Consider them equals? They’re idiots who lambaste dems at every turn… and are too lazy and stupid to objectively research FACTS. They attacked OUR capitol. They whined against Obama 8 years, posting stacks of disgusting comments and memes of Obama AND FAMILY. The list is long of reasons to just power past those losers. They deserve nothing. Their repub legislators REFUSE to compromise. Biden is on a roll, fixing 45 skrooups just like Obama fixed dubya skrooups. Dems will keep getting hundreds of thousands more registered to vote, keep pushing democracy, pushing forward with a proper progressive agenda. The 45 cultists are indeed WILLINGLY dumb as rocks. They’re gleeful in their ignorance. Let ’em stay that way. Doesn’t bother me in the least.
nina
poor people voted for CEOS against their own interest because Trump offered feel good bigotry. the portion of the public who voted for him are stupid, they are religious and reject education. those who voted for Obama voted for hope and change and got very little. it is a different kind of stupid: naïve.
Trump and his supporters are not only stupid, they are domestic terrorist dangerous and need to be in prison
Gordon
Obama’s big mistake was trying to be bipartisan, and work across the aisle… and letting McConnell and other Repuglicans torpedo almost everything he tried to do.
Micheal
We’ve known for quite some time dems have been way too easy on repubs… the party of NO compromise. Dems indeed need to check repubs within this small 2 year window of opportunity, to insure We The People is the order-of-the-day. Democracy is at stake if they don’t.
Greg
OK. Let me say it again.
When you find yourself punching down, you’re on the wrong side.
Yes, you do have to cut them some slack, and you have to deliver the goods. But only if you want to (a) win, and (b) be compassionate.
Also, beware if inherent classism. Class is the one very important thing Americans never talk about. Ignoring class is why HRC lost and Trump won. Dems have to regain the working class soon. Tucker Carlson (“Fucker Churlson”) is already working really hard to swing them over to the right, and that basically spells fascism.
Once again:
When you find yourself punching down, you’re on the wrong side.
Micheal
It’s people like you who make the dem party weaker…. even if you’d never admit it. And BTW, dems are much more aware of the insane wage gap between the rich and the middle class/poor… and how the wheels of the economy will NEVER be greased properly UNTIL repubs stop desperately trying to nix that REALITY and we get that economic issue fixed. No, we do NOT have to cut those LYING jerks ANY slack. They’re still whining the LEGIT election was stolen. They’re trying desperately to enact draconian Jim Crow era election laws after they lost their azziz last election… constantly lying it’s to make elections more safe/legit…. A TOTAL LIE. They’ve ramped up massive division, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, Islamophobia emboldened by their lord-and-master 45 for four years. Moscow mitch has said hell no to ANY compromise. State legislatures are trying to make it legal to run over protesters. The list of their attempts to demolish DEMOCRACY is MASSIVE. Sorry you’re stuck in your little weakling approach. You’re wrong.
Nina
zero summers who post talking point blogs. lols. you are the ones who get things so wrong. your american hetero male right vs american hetero male left have no relevance to this Canadian lesbian. your beyond foolish on the face of your words, as well as in yours, eh. you know is bad for democrats? infighting and being as heteros first and others last as the republicans without requiring ethnicity to hate lgbtq and lgbtq to be ethnicity bigots to be white hetero enough – that phrase “politically correct” was a republican slur on democrats that you are faking inclusion, which was why sanders and biden were part of the problem after Obama. you have to keep advancing, not roll back.
the american right wing are domestic terrorists, since you chose to spew words and mince them. let me plain speak: the american right wing are domestic terrorists
the democrats have to stop playing process games and arrest the entire party and turn them over to the world court owing to the us surpreme court was broken by obstruction under Obama and the Trump further ignoring government policy not merely niceties.
at this point, I expect france to ask for the statue of liberty back. Lest We Forget reactionary is a poor phase for civility.
i am concerned the new generation of LGBTQ2 is doing a chant of transphobia/biphobia/sex worker phobia and islamophophobia all in one breath and without any analysis of each issue or understanding that these are not entirely related issues arising from patriarchy
that islam is genociding lgbt2 and against sex work – which is not a middle class side hustle, but a global problem of human trafficking and that bi/pan and trans women who are unable to accept a no without name calling to dating are behaving like the hetero incels, who , insult ,assault, rape and murder because they are unable to behavior in a dating positive manner .
in 2019, I attended a Vancouver BC Canada Dyke March Town Hall about trans inclusion organized by trans, and while the meeting had no agenda, there was one.
to speak only about the dangers faced by trans, as if no other group was under the same threat of assault rape and murder by white supremists,
the meeting did not allow any time for issues of ethnicity, despite attendees who were there to speak to, and included a heterosexual couple who claimed to be lesbians and who advocated violence against the police who were being hired to stand between the marchers and the white supremists
and included a half naked man wearing a naked barbie doll as a necklace like a truck mud flap who told women to play with their nipples during the day, which is sexual harassment –
lesbians and dykes are at risk of harm by hetero men we do not court and under pressure to date under threat of name calling, those we are not attracted to in a battle over words and across world views that differ and absent of understanding human rights in public are one thing and dating is a personal choice not subject to a vote. or decided by one person for another.
so..
the thing about being a lesbian is that others do not define lesbian labels. words or phrases or decide for lesbians and especially not ignore, treat causally or reject a no.
it is harassment and potentially criminal when hetero men respond to a no with insults, assaults, rape and murder, and it is not okay for women who are bisexual, pan, omni or trans to tell any women, particularly lesbians, that a no is bigotry and not allowed, rather than accept not attracted to and respect the person one presumes to be interested in.
phobia is a violent reaction, while no is disinterested, it is different from bigotry.
not heteros, not homosexuals. Lesbians are lesbians, same gender and sexuality attraction in one complete word.
indeed. human rights are for the public square
dating is for sex selection and a personal choice, for which, there is a no.
without insult, assault, rape or murder.
bad when males deny that and worse when other women do.
even this article avoids saying lesbians love vagina. so why would a lesbian be with any thing else?
the idea that a lesbian would not partner with a transwoman who can not have a child is beyond foolish on it’s face..
Ellen DeGeneres says she didn’t cancel show because of allegationsIn an interview with Savannah Guthrie, Ellen DeGeneres claimed that she never saw the show as having a toxic workplace environment and thinks the allegations were “orchestrated.”tv.avclub.com
The Often Misunderstood Premise Of The Cotton Ceiling – CURVECassie Brighter focuses her writing on intersectional feminism.www.curvemag.com
Nineties Dyke 