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Russia
Peter the Great criminalizes sex between Men in the military. Men-Men sex remains legal and, according to contemporary accounts, widespread among civilians -
London
Customers at "Molly house" fight off a police raid. (could be first documented example pf a gay male protest against law enforcement) -
Paris
20,000 cases of "sodomy," according to police Lieutenant General Lenoir.
About 50 men arrested each year.
Considered a capital crime.
Most imprisoned for life. -
Paris
Benjamin Deschauffours burned at the stake in Place de Greve.
While accused of rape and murder, this was assumed to be his punishment for sodomy.
One publishes an anonymous tract in protest. -
Ireland
William King publishes the first collection of "The Toast," a poetic satire on a group of women in Dublin.
In one section, he uses the term "lesbian loves" - earliest account of using "lesbian" in same-sex context -
France
Voltaire's "Dictionnaire Philosophique" includes an article listing historical figures who were devotees of same-sex erotisism -
France
Jean-Jaques Rousseau describes his "terror and revulsion" when a "self-styled African" attempted to seduce him, but then relates a friends defense of the seduction attempt.
Perhaps first plea for tolerance of same-sex love in modern European Literature -
Ireland
Two Irish cousins elope in Wales.
Known as Ladies of Llangollen -
Prussia/USA
Prussian Military Baron Friedrich Wilhem von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Penn w/ 17yr old secretary.
He had signed on to train George Washington's Continental Army. -
USA
At Valley Forge, Penn, Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin becomes first military American to be discharged from military on Sodomy charge -
France
Friar Pascal is last person to be burned at the stake for Sodomy.
Charges compounded due to the murder of the boy. -
USA
West Point, NY.
Deborah Sampson: one of the earliest examples of a passing woman.
She is honorably discharged from Massachusetts Regiment Oct. 25.
She later marries and receives a military pension. -
England
Mary Wollstoncraft publishes "Mary: A Fiction"
Chronicles the devotion of one woman to another. -
France
Groups of militant "sodomite-citizens" demand freedom and recognition in petitions addressed to the National Assembly, the governing body of the French Revolution -
Germany
The "Magazine of Experimental Psychical Studies" publishes the first attempt at a scientific article on gay men -
France
Sodomy is decriminalized as part of the French Revolution -
France
Marquis de Sade publishes "Philosophy in the Boudoir" -
France
Denis Diderot published "La Religieuse"
Includes WLW -
France/USA
Mederic Louis-Elie Moreau de St. Mery leaves Philadelphia to write about his shock at observing women enjoying "unnatural pleasures" with each other.