On this day
01
December

Janelle Monáe, Matthew Shepard, James Baldwin

Born: Janelle Monáe (1985), Matthew Shepard (1976)
Died: James Baldwin (1987)

Born on this day

01DecBorn 198541st birthday

Janelle Monáe

A musician and actor whose imagined worlds opened into increasingly direct expressions of queer desire.

01DecBorn 197650th birthday

Matthew Shepard

The murder of the 21-year-old student in Wyoming shook America – and led to a federal hate crimes law.

Died on this day

01DecDied 198739th anniversary of death

James Baldwin

A writer whose accounts of race, sexuality and belonging confronted the stories America told about itself.