German military leader Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben was BOTD in 1730. Born in Magdeburg, Prussia, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, his father was a military captain for the Prussian Army, who took young Friedrich with him on military campaigns in the Crimea and Kronstadt. He joined the Prussian Army at 17, fighting in the Seven Years War and attaining the rank of captain. By 1762, he was aide-de-camp to notorious homosexual King Friedrich the Great, and one of 13 young officers chosen for a “special course of instruction” by the King (the exact details of which are still unclear). As a reward for his service, Steuben was presented with the Hausorden der Treue (the House Order of Fidelity) and was made a baron in 1771. Perennially short of funds, relocated to Paris, where he befriended Benjamin Franklin, who encouraged him to join the American revolutionary cause. In 1777, he travelled to Pennsylvania with his Italian greyhound and two pretty young aides-de-camp, where George Washington appointed him inspector-general of the Revolutionary army. Steuben imposed Germanic efficiency on the ramshackle American forces, introducing military training (particularly in the use of bayonets), keeping exact records, holding regular inspections and stamping out war profiteering. His hands-on approach and constant expletives in different languages made him popular with his forces. After leading successful campaigns in the War of Independence, he was honourably discharged in 1784, granted American citizenship and presented with an estate in New York (now known as Steuben House). Steuben’s homosexuality was relatively well-known and accepted in his life time. He had long-term relationships with his aides-de-camp Benjamin Walker and William North, both 30 years his junior, legally adopting them to make them his heirs. Steuben died in 1794 aged 64. Von Steuben Day parades are held annually in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia in his honour, though details of his homosexuality are typically not referenced. The Chicago Von Steuben Day parade was featured in John Hughes’ 1986 cult film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.