In 1991, the Chicago Bulls win the first NBA championship in the team’s 25-year history with a 108-101 victory in Game 5 over the Los Angeles Lakers. MVP Michael Jordan scores 30 points, Scottie Pippen has 32 and John Paxson 20.

On this date:

1920 — Man o’ War wins the Belmont Stakes, which was run at 1 3/8-miles, in 2:14 1/5. He shatters the world record by 3 1/5 seconds and sets the American dirt-course record for that distance.

1930 — Max Schmeling beats Jack Sharkey on a fourth-round foul for the vacant heavyweight title in New York. Schmeling becomes the first German — and European — heavyweight world champion.

1939 — Byron Nelson wins the U.S. Open in a three-way playoff with Craig Wood and Denny Shute.

1948 — Citation, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown with an eight-length victory over Better Self. It’s Arcaro’s second Triple Crown. He rode Whirlaway in 1941.

1948 — Ben Hogan wins the U.S. Open with a record 276, five fewer than Ralph Guldahl’s 1937 record.

1954 — Milwaukee Braves spot starting pitcher Jim Wilson throws first no-hitter in history of County Stadium when he blanks Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0.

1979 — Bobby Orr becomes the youngest player in NHL history to be selected for the Hockey Hall of Fame. The 31-year-old is inducted months after officially ending his NHL career as the Hall waives its usual three-year waiting period.

1981 — Larry Holmes stops Leon Spinks in the third round for the WBC heavyweight title in Detroit.

1983 — Patty Sheehan wins the LPGA championship by two strokes over Sandra Haynie.

1984 — 38th NBA Championship: Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers, 4 games to 3, to win the championship title.

1990 — Egypt, a 500-1 shot, stuns the Netherlands when Magdi Abdel-Ghani makes a penalty kick with eight minutes remaining to tie the World Cup favorites 1-1.

2002 — NBA Finals: Los Angeles Lakers beat New Jersey Nets, 113-107 for a 4-0 sweep and 3rd straight title; MVP: Shaquille O’Neal for 3rd consecutive Finals series.

2005 — Annika Sorenstam closes with a 1-over 73 for a three-shot victory over Michelle Wie in the LPGA Championship. The 15-year-old Wie shoots a 69 to finish second. It’s the highest finish by an amateur in a major since 20-year-old Jenny Chuasiriporn lost a playoff to Se Ri Pak in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open.

2008 — The Boston Celtics overcome a 24-point deficit and beat the Los Angeles Lakers 97-91 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the NBA finals. No team has ever overcome more than a 15-point deficit after the first quarter, and the Celtics post the biggest comeback in the finals since 1971.

2009 — Pittsburgh’s Max Talbot scores two second-period goals as the Penguins beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Stanley Cup at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.

2011 — The Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA title by winning Game 6 of the finals in Miami, 105-95. Jason Terry scores 27 points and Dirk Nowitzki adds 21 as the Mavericks win four of the series’ last five games.

2013 — Andrew Shaw scores on a deflection in triple overtime to lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins in a riveting Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Blackhawks gets third-period goals from Dave Bolland and Oduya to erase a 3-1 deficit.

2016 — Sidney Crosby sets up Kris Letang’s go-ahead goal midway through the second period and the Pittsburgh Penguins win the fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history by beating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final.

2017 — Kevin Durant caps his spectacular first season with the Warriors by bringing home an NBA championship. Durant, who joined Golden State last July, scores 39 points in a finals-clinching 129-120 victory over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

2019 — Stanley Cup Final, TD Garden, Boston, MA: St. Louis Blues beat Boston Bruins, 4-1 for a 4-3 series victory; first title in franchise history.

2021 — Danish soccer midfielder Christian Eriksen suffers an on-field cardiac arrest during a Euro 2020 match with Finland in Copenhagen. Eriksen is revived with a defibrillator and the game controversially continues with a 1-0 Finland win.

2023 — NBA Finals: Denver Nuggets beat Miami Heat 94-89 to win the franchise’s first Championship; clinch series 4-1; MVP: Denver C Nikola Jokić.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial but was eventually held liable in a civil action.)

Related: The O.J. Simpson case forced domestic violence into the spotlight, boosting a movement

On this date:

In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop, leading a fleet carrying Puritan refugees, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became its governor.

In 1776, Virginia’s colonial legislature adopted a Declaration of Rights.

In 1942, Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis.

In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)

In 1964, South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison along with seven other people, including Walter Sisulu, for committing sabotage against the apartheid regime (all were eventually released, Mandela in 1990).

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, unanimously struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.

In 1978, David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six “Son of Sam” .44-caliber killings that terrified New Yorkers.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

In 1991, Russians went to the polls to elect Boris N. Yeltsin president of their republic.

In 2004, former President Ronald Reagan’s body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.

In 2016, a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, a gay establishment in Orlando, Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded; Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a three-hour standoff before being killed in a shootout with police.

In 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by one of the two white officers who responded after he was found asleep in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta; police body camera video showed Brooks struggling with the officers and grabbing a Taser from one of them, firing it as he fled.

Today’s Birthdays: Sportscaster Marv Albert is 84. Singer Roy Harper is 84. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 76. Actor Sonia Manzano is 74. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 73. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 72. Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 71. Actor Timothy Busfield is 67. Singer Meredith Brooks is 66. Actor Jenilee Harrison is 66. Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 65. Actor John Enos is 62. Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 62. Actor Paul Schulze is 62. Actor Eamonn Walker is 62. Actor Paula Marshall is 60. Actor Frances O’Connor is 57. Actor Rick Hoffman is 54. Actor-comedian Finesse Mitchell is 52. Actor Mel Rodriguez is 51. Actor Jason Mewes is 50. Actor Michael Muhney is 49. Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 47. Actor Timothy Simons is 46. Actor Wil Horneff is 45. Singer Robyn is 45. Rock singer-musician John Gourley (Portugal. The Man) is 44. Actor Dave Franco is 39. Country singer Chris Young is 39. Actor Luke Youngblood is 38. Actor Ryan Malgarini is 32.

In 2012, The Los Angeles Kings win their first NHL championship, defeating the New Jersey Devils 6-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

On this date:

1898 — Willie Simms becomes the only African American jockey to win the Preakness Stakes when he rides Sly Fox to victory and the only one to have won all three Triple Crown races. Simms’ other Triple Crown wins: Kentucky Derby (1896, 1898), Belmont Stakes (1893, 1894).

1919 — Walter Hagen wins the U.S. Open with a one-stroke playoff victory over Michael Brady.

1919 — Sir Barton, ridden by Johnny Loftus, captures the Belmont Stakes to become thoroughbred racing’s first Triple Crown winner.

1921 — Grey Lag, ridden by Earl Sande, wins the first Belmont Stakes run counterclockwise. Previous Belmonts were run clockwise over a fish-hook course that included part of the training track and the main dirt oval.

1938 — Ralph Guldahl wins golf’s U.S. Open for the second straight year by beating Dick Metz.

1949 — Cary Middlecoff wins the U.S. Open by beating Sam Snead and Clayton Heafner.

1955 — Nashua wins the Belmont Stakes with Eddie Arcaro in the saddle. It’s the sixth Belmont victory for Arcaro, tying Jimmy McLaughlin’s record.

1977 — Seattle Slew, ridden by Jean Cruguet, runs wire to wire in the Belmont for a four-length victory over Run Dusty Run and the Triple Crown.

1978 — Nancy Lopez shoots a record 13-under par to win the LPGA Championship by six strokes over Amy Alcott.

1982 — Larry Holmes stops Gerry Cooney in the 13th round for the WBC heavyweight title at Las Vegas.

1984 — The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers 111-102 in Game 7 to win their 15th NBA title.

1990 — Nolan Ryan, 43, pitches the sixth no-hitter of his career as the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-0. Ryan becomes the first to pitch no-hitters for three teams and the oldest to throw one.

1992 — Tracy Austin, 29, is youngest inductee of International Tennis Hall of Fame.

1994 — For the first time in 11 years, the United States loses in the women’s world basketball championships. Guards Hortencia and Paula combine for 61 points, and Brazil stuns the defending champions 110-107 in the semifinals.

2006 — Se Ri Pak beats Karrie Webb on the first playoff hole to win the LPGA Championship. Pak atones for a three-putt bogey on the 18th hole in regulation that set up the playoff.

2006 — Rafael Nadal wins his second consecutive French Open, beating Roger Federer in four sets. Nadal spoils Federer’s bid for a fourth consecutive Grand Slam championship and extends his record clay-court winning streak to 60 matches.

2011 — Texas A&M sweeps the men’s and women’s titles at the NCAA outdoor championships, becoming the first school to post dual three-peat champions. Villanova’s Sheila Reid becomes the first woman to win the 1,500 and 5,000 meters at the same NCAA meet.

2012 — Rafael Nadal wins his record seventh French Open title, returning to Roland Garros to defeat Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. It’s Nadal’s 11th Grand Slam title, tying him on the all-time list with Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg, who won six French Open titles.

2017 — Rafael Nadal wins his record 10th French Open title by dominating 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in the final. No other man or woman has won 10 championships at the same major in the Open era, which began in 1968.

2017 — Stanley Cup Final, Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN: Pittsburgh Penguins defeat Nashville Predators, 2-0 for 4-2 series win; Penguins back-to-back champions.

2022 — Charl Schwartzel hangs on to beat fellow South African Hennie Du Plessis by a stroke to win the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational event at the Centurion GC, Hertfordshire; pockets massive US$4.75m for the victory.

2023 — French Open Men’s Tennis: Novak Đoković beats Casper Ruud of Norway 7-6, 6-3, 7-5 for his men’s record 23rd Grand Slam singles title.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 11, 2009, with swine flu reported in more than 70 nations, the World Health Organization declared the first global flu pandemic in 41 years.

On this date:

In 1509, England’s King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

In 1770, Captain James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, “discovered” the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.

In 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.

In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner.

In 1938, Johnny Vander Meer pitched the first of two consecutive no-hitters as he led the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-0 victory over the Boston Bees. (Four days later, Vander Meer refused to give up a hit to the Brooklyn Dodgers, who lost, 6-0.)

In 1955, in motor racing’s worst disaster, more than 80 people were killed during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France when two of the cars collided and crashed into spectators.

In 1962, three prisoners at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft; they were never found or heard from again.

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, New Jersey, at age 31.

In 1987, Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office as her Conservative Party held onto a reduced majority in Parliament.

In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that people who commit hate crimes motivated by bigotry may be sentenced to extra punishment.

In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that states can target people who haven’t cast ballots in a while in efforts to purge their voting rolls.

In 2020, Louisville, Kentucky, banned the use of “no-knock” warrants and named the new ordinance for Breonna Taylor, who’d been fatally shot by officers who burst into her home.

Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., is 94. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Jackie Stewart is 85. Singer Joey Dee is 84. Actor Roscoe Orman is 80. Actor Adrienne Barbeau is 79. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 75. Animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk is 75. Singer Graham Russell (Air Supply) is 74. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 72. Actor Peter Bergman is 71. Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 68. Actor Hugh Laurie is 65. TV personality and former U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, M.D., is 64. Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 61. Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 58. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 58. Actor Clare Carey is 57. Actor Peter Dinklage is 55. Actor Lenny Jacobson is 50. Actor Joshua Jackson is 46. Americana musician Gabe Witcher (Punch Brothers) is 46. U.S. Olympic and WNBA basketball star Diana Taurasi is 42. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 38.

In 1933, Johnny Goodman wins the U.S. Open golf title, making him the last amateur to win this event.

On this date:

1890 — The Preakness Stakes is run outside Baltimore, at Morris Park in New York. The race is then suspended for three years, and resumes at the Brooklyn Jockey Club’s Gravesend Course from 1894-1908.

1932 — Gene Sarazen leads wire-to-wire to win the British Open by five strokes ahead of Macdonald Smith at Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich, England. Sarazen finishes with a tournament record of 283.

1934 — Italy beats Czechoslovakia 2-1 in extra time to win the second FIFA World Cup at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome. Italy trailing 1-0, ties the game at the 80th minute. Angelo Schiavio scores the winning goal in extra time.

1944 — A rare triple dead heat occurs in the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct with Bossuet, Brownie and Wait a Bit crossing the finish line together.

1950 — Sixteen months after near-fatal car accident, Ben Hogan wins the U.S. Open. Hogan beats Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio in an 18-hole playoff at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.

1968 — UEFA European Championship Final, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy: Italy beats Yugoslavia, 2-0 in a replay (first game, 1-1).

1973 — Mary Mills shoots a 63 in the final round of the LPGA Championship to beat Betty Burfeindt by one stroke.

1977 — Al Geiberger sets a PGA Championship 18-hole record when he shoots a 59 in the Danny Thomas Classic.

1978 — Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, wins the Belmont Stakes to capture the Triple Crown in one of the greatest battles in racing history. Affirmed edges Alydar for the third time.

1981 — Pete Rose ties Stan Musial’s NL record of 3,630 hits.

1989 — Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings is named the NHL’s MVP, winning the Hart Trophy for a record ninth time.

1995 — Trainer D. Wayne Lukas wins a record five straight Triple Crown races as Thunder Gulch takes the Belmont Stakes. Lukas is the first trainer to win the Triple Crown races with two different horses. Lukas’ Timber Country won the Preakness.

1996 — Colorado’s Patrick Roy makes 63 saves before Uwe Krupp scores 4:31 into the third overtime to give the Avalanche a 1-0 victory against the Florida Panthers at Miami Arena and complete a four-game sweep of the Stanley Cup Final.

2000 — Stanley Cup Final, Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX: New Jersey Devils defeat Dallas Stars, 2-1 in double OT for a 4-2 series victory.

2006 — In Atlantic City, N.J., Bernard Hopkins wins a unanimous decision over light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver, capping an 18-year career with an upset for the ages.

2010 — Southern California is placed on four years probation, receives a two-year bowl ban and a sharp loss of football scholarships. The NCAA cites USC for a lack of institutional control. The NCAA found that Reggie Bush, identified as a “former football student-athlete,” was ineligible beginning at least by December 2004. The NCAA also orders USC to vacate every victory in which Bush participated while ineligible. USC loses 30 scholarships over a three-year period, 10 annually from 2011-13.

2012 — Shanshan Feng wins the LPGA Championship to become the first Chinese player to win an LPGA Tour title and a major event.

2018 — Rafael Nadal won a record-extending 11th championship at Roland Garros by beating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Nadal became the second player in tennis history to win 11 singles titles at any Grand Slam tournament after Margaret Court, who claimed 11 Australian Open titles.

2018 — Kristen Gillman led a U.S. singles sweep in the biggest blowout in Curtis Cup history. Gillman, a 20-year-old University of Alabama star, beat 16-year-old Annabell Fuller 5 and 4 to cap a perfect weekend at Quaker Ridge in Scarsdale, N.Y. The Americans won 17-3, breaking the record for margin of victory of 11 set in a 14 1/2-3 1/2 victory at Denver Country Club in 1982.

2023 — UEFA Champions League Final, Ataturk Stadium, Istanbul: Manchester City beats Inter Milan, 1-0 to complete historic Champions League, Premier League & FA Cup trifecta.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 10, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon lifted a two-decades-old trade embargo on China.

On this date:

In 1692, the first execution resulting from the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts took place as Bridget Bishop was hanged.

In 1907, eleven men in five cars set out from the French embassy in Beijing on a race to Paris. (Prince Scipione Borghese of Italy was the first to arrive in the French capital two months later.)

In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio, by Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith and William Griffith Wilson.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at eliminating wage disparities based on gender.

In 1967, six days of war in the Mideast involving Israel, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq ended as Israel and Syria accepted a United Nations-mediated cease-fire.

In 1977, James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee with six others; he was recaptured June 13.

In 1978, Affirmed, ridden by Steve Cauthen, won the 110th Belmont Stakes to claim horse racing’s 11th Triple Crown.

In 1991, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard of South Lake Tahoe, California, was abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido; Jaycee was held by the couple for 18 years before she was found by authorities.

In 2009, James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist, opened fire in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., killing security guard Stephen T. Johns. (Von Brunn died at a North Carolina hospital in January 2010 while awaiting trial.)

In 2013, a trial began in Sanford, Florida, in the trial of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman was acquitted.)

In 2016, Muhammad Ali was laid to rest in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, after an all-day send-off. “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe, who set scoring records that stood for decades, died in Sylvania, Ohio, at 88.

In 2020, protesters pulled down a century-old statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.

In 2022, Britney Spears married her longtime partner Sam Asghari at a Southern California ceremony that came months after the pop superstar won her freedom from a court conservatorship. (Asghari would file for divorce 14 months later.)

In 2023, Ted Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician known as the “Unabomber” who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died at a federal prison medical center.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Alexandra Stewart is 84. Singer Shirley Alston Reeves (The Shirelles) is 82. Actor Jurgen Prochnow is 82. Media commentator Jeff Greenfield is 80. Actor Frankie Faison is 74. Football Hall of Famer Dan Fouts is 72. Country singer-songwriter Thom Schuyler is 71. Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., is 70. Actor Andrew Stevens is 68. Singer Barrington Henderson is 67. Rock musician Kim Deal is 62. Singer Maxi Priest is 62. Actor Gina Gershon is 61. Actor Jeanne Tripplehorn is 60. Rock musician Jimmy Chamberlin is 59. Actor Ben Daniels is 59. Actor Kate Flannery is 59. Model-actor Elizabeth Hurley is 58. Rock musician Joey Santiago is 58. Actor Doug McKeon is 57. Rock musician Emma Anderson is 56. Country musician Brian Hofeldt (The Derailers) is 56. Rapper The D.O.C. is 55. Rock singer Mike Doughty is 53. R&B singer Faith Evans is 50. Actor Hugh Dancy is 48. R&B singer Lemisha Grinstead (702) is 45. Actor DJ Qualls is 45. Actor Shane West is 45. Country singer Lee Brice is 44. Singer Hoku is 42. Actor Leelee Sobieski is 41. Olympic gold medal figure skater Tara Lipinski is 41. Americana musician Bridget Kearney (Lake Street Dive) is 38. Actor Titus Makin is 34. Actor Tristin Mays is 33. Sasha Obama is 22. Actor Eden McCoy is 20.

It was once part of a complex of townhouses built for well-heeled newlyweds. Today it sits amid Old Town’s mix of high-rise condos and renovated brownstones.

A plaque in the sidewalk outside the building where he lived on the second floor notes it is a Chicago landmark, explaining that the home was where Gerber wrote at least the first of the two published issues of “Friendship and Freedom,” the first documented gay periodical in America.

But in his day, Gerber’s neighbors were society’s outcasts. Prostitutes worked in rooms on either wing of Crilly Court. Being off the beaten path was fine with him. He didn’t want his address to be generally known.

Gerber didn’t hold meetings of the Society for Human Rights in his rented room. He and his handful of followers gathered in the basement of the Crilly Court building. It had direct exits to the outside. Gays could come and go without running a gauntlet of neighbors’ eyes. Even so, many were reluctant to attend.

“One of our greatest handicaps was the knowledge that homosexuals don’t organize,” Gerber wrote in 1962. “Being thoroughly cowed, they seldom get together.”

Gays were despised for simply being different, and that hostility was written into law. Homosexuals faced being committed to a mental asylum or jail time.

Gerber explained the objective of his gay rights organization was to “promote and protect the interests of people who by reason of mental or physical abnormalities are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness, which is guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence, and to combat the public prejudices against them by distributing the factors according to modern science among intellectuals of mature age.”

In fact, American psychiatry considered homosexuality a mental disorder for decades thereafter. Gerber’s optimism was acquired at one of the stopping places on the bumpy road to acceptance of his sexuality.

Born in Germany, Gerber immigrated to the United States in 1913.  “I had no idea that I was a homosexual,” Gerber later said.

He had limited sexual experience as a boy and subsequently more complex encounters in Chicago. He and his sister settled there, following the lead of a family friend. Gerber found his way to Washington Square Park, a meeting place for gays adjacent to the Newberry Library.

Gerber was at some point committed to an insane asylum because of his homosexuality. Released after a year, but fearing another incarceration, he volunteered for military service. He was assigned to an Army unit occupying Germany after its defeat in World War I.

On leave, Gerber went to Berlin where attitudes toward homosexuality were relatively liberal and, as Gerber’s biographer Jim Elledge wrote, “Das Lilia Liede,” was heard in myriad hot spots. “The Lavender Song,” the first gay anthem, was also available as a phonograph record. Erotic magazines were displayed on newsstands that the police would have confiscated in the United States.

Berlin was also the site of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Profoundly affected by the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde, a gay English dramatist, Hirschfeld began to specialize in human sexuality. Gay himself, he campaigned for the legalization of homosexuality.

“Please tell the public everything about us,” a gay man pressured to marry wrote to Hirschfeld just before committing suicide.

Reflecting on what he experienced in Germany, Gerber wrote: “I had always bitterly felt the injustice with which my own American society accused the homosexual of ‘immoral acts.’ What could be done about it, I thought.”

Discharged from the Army in 1923, he returned to Chicago determined to form a gay rights organization like Hirschfeld’s. Getting it incorporated was problematic. The legal papers required a statement of purpose, and its purpose collided head-on with homosexuality’s illegality.

On the advice of a liberal-minded lawyer, the application included the clause: “The Society stands only for law and order,” its officers swore, “and does in no manner recommend any acts in violation of present laws nor advocate any matter inimical to the public welfare.”

One of the initial issues was whether the society should be a purely homosexual organization and “exclude the much larger circle of bisexuals?” Elledge, Gerber’s biographer, wrote in “An Angel in Sodom.”

But the issue of bisexuals, who often had a traditional wife and family while secretly living a gay life, and how they might endanger the organization presented itself not too long after Gerber founded his organization.

On July 11, 1925, he heard a loud pounding on the door of the apartment at 34 E. Oak St., where he had moved from Crilly Court.

“Where’s the boy?” a detective shouted when Gerber opened the door. He was alone. The detective was accompanied by a couple of uniformed officers and a reporter from the Chicago American, a Hearst newspaper. The officers found the organization’s files and arrested Gerber.

The following day’s headline in the paper announced: “Girl Reveals Strange Cult Run By Dad.”

The accompanying story identified the girl as the 12-year-old daughter of Al Meininger, president of the Society for Human Rights. She reportedly had asked an officer at the Chicago Avenue police station, “why her father carried on so.” Men visited afternoon and night, and engaged in “strange rites.”

Police were sent to the Meininger apartment at 532 N. Dearborn St. Pushing through the door, they arrested Meininger. The Chicago American’s story might have been hyped up, as Hearst-owned papers were known to cross the line between fact and fiction.

Meininger’s wife had complained to a social worker about his homosexual activities. Meininger and Gerber met in the police station’s cells. Gerber was furious at hearing that the social worker was going to include him in her testimony.

The newspaper article got him fired from his job as a postal worker. Meininger’s indiscretion also brought down  Gerber’s gay rights organization. Gerber refused to speak to Meininger.

After paying a $10 fine for disorderly conduct, Gerber left Chicago for New York. Intermittently he resumed his activism. But in a 1945 letter to a veteran of his movement, Gerber wrote: It is “your and my misfortune to have been born 1,000 years too soon or 1,000 years too late.”

At 52, Gerber reenlisted in the Army hoping to get increased retirement benefits. He spent the remainder of his years in the U.S. Soldiers Home in Washington, D.C.

On New Year’s Eve of 1972, Gerber died at age 80 in the home’s hospital and was buried in the cemetery there. His passing went unnoted in the gay rights community.

Except perhaps by a member of the staff of One Magazine, to which Gerber subscribed.

His letter to Gerber was returned to him by the Soldiers Home. Its envelope was stamped “DECEASED.”

In 2019, Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz shot while visiting Dominican Republic.

On this date:

1888 — James McLaughlin sets the record for wins by a jockey in the Belmont Stakes, six, when he rides Sir Dixon to a 12-length victory. McLaughlin’s record is matched by Eddie Arcaro in 1955.

1899 — Jim Jeffries knocks out Bob Fitzsimmons in the 11th round in New York to win the world heavyweight title.

1914 — Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates becomes the first player in modern baseball to get 3,000 hits.

1930 — Paavo Nurmi runs world record 6 mile (29:36.4).

1934 — Olin Dutra edges Gene Sarazen by one stroke to win the U.S. Open.

1940 — Lawson Little beats Gene Sarazen by three strokes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open golf title.x

1945 — Hoop Jr. wins the Kentucky Derby, which is run one month after a national wartime government ban on racing is lifted.

1946 — Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in 8 for heavyweight boxing title.

1973 — Secretariat, ridden by Ron Turcotte, wins the Belmont Stakes in record time to capture the Triple Crown. Secretariat sets a world record on the 1½-mile course with 2:24, and a record for largest margin of victory in the Belmont, 31 lengths.

1978 — Larry Holmes scores a 15-round split decision over Ken Norton for the WBC heavyweight title in New York.

1979 — Coastal, ridden by Ruben Hernandez, spoils Spectacular Bid’s attempt at the Triple Crown with a 3¼-length victory over Golden Act. Spectacular Bid finishes third.

1984 — Swale, ridden by Laffit Pincay, wins the Belmont Stakes by four lengths over Pine Circle. Swale dies eight days later.

1984 — French Open Women’s Tennis: Martina Navratilova beats Chris Evert 6-3, 6-1; 2nd women in Open Era to hold all 4 Grand Slam titles at once.

1985 — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 29 points to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-100 victory over the Boston Celtics and the NBA title in six games.

1990 — Monica Seles holds off four set points in the first set tiebreaker and goes on to become the youngest winner of the French Open, beating two-time champion Steffi Graf 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. Seles is 16 years, six months.

1991 — In the first all-American men’s final at the French Open since 1954, Jim Courier rallies to beat Andre Agassi 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 for his first Grand Slam title.

1993 — Patrick Roy makes 18 saves and the Montreal Canadiens capture their 24th Stanley Cup, beating the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 in Game 5.

2001 — Stanley Cup Final, Pepsi Center, Denver, CO: Colorado Avalanche beat defending champion New Jersey Devils, 3-1 for 4-3 series win; Avalanche 2nd title.

2001 — Jennifer Capriati beats Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 to win the French Open, her second consecutive Grand Slam title.

2003 — The New Jersey Devils end the Anaheim Mighty Ducks’ surreal season, winning the Stanley Cup with a 3-0 victory. Mike Rupp, who had never appeared in a playoff until Game 4, scores the first goal and sets up Jeff Friesen for the other two.

2007 — Rags to Riches, a filly ridden by John Velazquez, outduels Curlin in a breathtaking stretch run and won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first of her sex to take the final leg of the Triple Crown in more than a century.

2008 — Ken Griffey Jr. becomes the sixth player sixth player in baseball history to reach 600 homers with a drive off Mark Hendrickson in the first inning of the Cincinnati Reds’ 9-4 victory over the Florida Marlins.

2010 — Chicago’s Patrick Kane sneaks the puck past Michael Leighton 4:10 into overtime, stunning Philadelphia and lifting the Blackhawks to a 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 for their first Stanley Cup championship since 1961.

2013 — Rafael Nadal becomes the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the French Open final, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.

2015 — Chris Heston, San Francisco Giants throws a no-hitter against the New York Mets, 5-0.

2018 — Justify becomes the 13th Triple Crown winner by winning the Belmont Stakes with Mike Smith aboard.

2019 — French Open Men’s Tennis: Rafael Nadal beats Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1; 3rd straight French singles title; 12th overall; first to win 12 singles titles at same Grand Slam; 18th major.

2022 — The controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series gets underway at the Centurion Club, Hertfordshire; PGA suspends 17 participating players.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 9, 1993, the science-fiction film “Jurassic Park,” directed by Steven Spielberg, had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

Related: We ranked all 33 of Steven Spielberg’s movies, from worst to No. 1 best

On this date:

In 1732, James Oglethorpe received a charter from Britain’s King George II to found the colony of Georgia.

In 1870, author Charles Dickens died in Gad’s Hill Place, England.

In 1915, guitarist, songwriter and inventor Les Paul was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

In 1940, during World War II, Norway decided to surrender to the Nazis, effective at midnight.

In 1954, during the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings, Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch berated Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., asking: “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

In 1969, the Senate confirmed Warren Burger to be the new chief justice of the United States, succeeding Earl Warren.

In 1972, heavy rains triggered record flooding in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the resulting disaster left at least 238 people dead and $164 million in damage.

In 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding Black men from the Mormon priesthood.

In 1983, Britain’s Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, won a decisive election victory.

In 1986, the Rogers Commission released its report on the Challenger disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts.

In 2004, the body of Ronald Reagan arrived in Washington to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda before the 40th president’s funeral.

In 2013, Rafael Nadal became the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the French Open final.

In 2017, actor Adam West, TV’s “Batman,” died in Los Angeles at age 88.

In 2018, Justify, ridden by Mike Smith and trained by Bob Baffert, won the Belmont Stakes to become horse racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner and the second in four years.

In 2020, hundreds of mourners packed a Houston church for the funeral of George Floyd, a Black man whose death during a Minneapolis arrest inspired a worldwide reckoning over racial injustice.

In 2022, at its first public hearing on the matter, the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump, saying the assault was not spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

In 2023, a felony indictment said Donald Trump improperly stored in his Florida estate sensitive documents on nuclear capabilities, repeatedly enlisted aides and lawyers to help him hide records demanded by investigators and cavalierly showed off a Pentagon “plan of attack” and classified map.

Today’s Birthdays: Media analyst Marvin Kalb is 94. Sports commentator Dick Vitale is 85. Author Letty Cottin Pogrebin is 85. Rock musician Mick Box (Uriah Heep) is 77. Retired MLB All-Star Dave Parker is 73. Film composer James Newton Howard is 73. Mystery author Patricia Cornwell is 68. Actor Michael J. Fox is 63. Writer-producer Aaron Sorkin is 63. Actor Johnny Depp is 61. Actor Gloria Reuben is 60. Gospel singer-actor Tamela Mann is 58. Rock musician Dean Felber (Hootie & the Blowfish) is 57. Rock musician Dean Dinning is 57. Musician Ed Simons is 54. Actor Keesha Sharp is 51. Bluegrass singer-musician Jamie Dailey (Dailey & Vincent) is 49. Actor Michaela Conlin is 46. Actor Natalie Portman is 43. Actor Mae Whitman is 36. Actor Lucien Laviscount is 32.

In 1990, The “Indomitable Lions” of Cameroon pull off one of the greatest upsets in soccer history, 1-0 over defending champion Argentina in the first game of the World Cup.

On this date:

1935 — Omaha, ridden by Willis Saunders, becomes the third horse to win the Triple Crown by capturing the Belmont Stakes with a 1½-length victory over Firethron.

1950 — Boston beats the St. Louis Browns 29-4 at Fenway Park, and the Red Sox set six major league records: most runs scored by one team; most long hits in a game with 17 (nine doubles, one triple and seven homers); most total bases with 60; most extra bases on long hits with 32; most runs for two games with 49 (20 a day earlier); and most hits in two games with 51.

1958 — Mickey Wright beats Fay Crocker by six strokes to win the LPGA Championship.

1980 — Sally Little wins the LPGA Championship by three strokes over Jane Blalock.

1982 — 36th NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Philadelphia 76ers, 4 games to 2.

1985 — Creme Fraiche, ridden by Eddie Maple, becomes the first gelding to win the Belmont Stakes, beating Stephan’s Odyssey by a half-length.

1986 — Larry Bird scores 29 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 114-97 victory over the Houston Rockets and their 16th NBA title.

1991 — Warren Schutte, a UNLV sophomore from South Africa, shoots a 5-under 67 to become the first foreign-born player to win the NCAA Division I golf championship.

2000 — Mike Modano deflects Brett Hull’s shot at 6:21 of the third overtime, ending the longest scoreless overtime game in Stanley Cup finals history and helping the Dallas Stars beat the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in Game 5.

2002 — British-Canadian Lennox Lewis retains boxing’s WBC Heavyweight title with eighth-round knockout of American Mike Tyson.

2005 — Freshman Samantha Findlay hits a three-run homer in the 10th inning to lead Michigan to a 4-1 win over UCLA for its first NCAA softball title. Michigan is the first team from east of the Mississippi River to win the national championship.

2008 — Rafael Nadal wins his fourth consecutive French Open title in a rout, again spoiling Roger Federer’s bid to complete a career Grand Slam. Dominating the world’s No. 1 player with astounding ease, Nadal wins in three sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.

2008 — Yani Tseng of Taiwan becomes the first rookie in 10 years to win a major, beating Maria Hjorth on the fourth hole of a playoff with a 5-foot birdie on the 18th hole to win the LPGA Championship.

2012 — I’ll Have Another’s bid for the first Triple Crown in 34 years ends shockingly in the barn and not on the racetrack when the colt is scratched the day before the Belmont Stakes and retires from racing with a swollen tendon.

2013 — Serena Williams wins her 16th Grand Slam title and her first French Open championship since 2002, beating Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4.

2014 — Rafael Nadal wins the French Open title for the ninth time, and the fifth time in a row, by beating Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4. Nadal improves his record at Roland Garros to 66-1.

2015 — The NCAA approves multiple rule changes to men’s basketball for the 2015-16 season, including a 30-second shot clock and fewer timeouts for each team. The shot clock was last reduced, from 45 to 35 seconds, in 1993-94.

2018 — Golden State romps to its second straight NBA championship, beating Cleveland 108-85 to finish a four-game sweep. Stephen Curry scores 37 points and Kevin Durant, who is named MVP for the second straight finals, has 20 for the Warriors. It’s the first sweep in the NBA Finals since 2007, when James was dismissed by a powerful San Antonio team in his first one.

2019 — Ashleigh Barty, Australia, wins the French Open by defeating Marketa Vondrousoca. The win is Barty’s first Grand Slam singles title.