On this day today:
1933 - Montserrat Caballe, one of the best sopranos of the 20th century, is born in Barcelona, Spain.
1944 - Rocker John Kay (frontman of Steppenwolf) is born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in former Tilsit, East Prussia, Germany.
1957 - Country singer Vince Gill is born in Norman, Oklahoma.
1961 - Ray Charles is the big winner at the third annual Grammy Awards, winning four trophies, including the award for Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."
1964 - Folk singer-songwriter Amy Ray (of Indigo Girls) is born in Decatur, Georgia.
1968 - The outspoken Frank Zappa performs at a dinner for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, who are the people who give us the Grammys. Zappa says the event is "a load of pompous hokum" and tells the audience, "All year long you people have manufactured this crap, now for one night you're gonna have to listen to it!"
1969 - 5th Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In," from the musical Hair, hits #1 in America, where it stays on top for six weeks.
1975 - Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom," named after the professional tennis team his friend Billie Jean King coaches, hits #1 on the Hot 100.
1975 - During an interview with Playboy Magazine David Bowie announced his second career retirement, saying, 'I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end, there will be no more rock 'n' roll records from me. The last thing I want to be is some useless f—ing rock singer.'
1976 - Bob Seger, beloved in Michigan but an obscurity elsewhere, releases Live Bullet, which captures the intensity of his live performances and makes him a national act.
1977 - At The Rathskeller in Boston, The Damned get a tepid reception for their first set, so when they return to the stage, they sit down and eat pizza while they play, telling the crowd, "We can sit on our asses just like you."
1981 - Rush are guests at Kennedy Space Center to witness the first space shuttle launch, which inspires their song "Countdown."
1983 - R.E.M. release their debut album, Murmur.
1989 - Garth Brooks releases his debut album, Garth Brooks, featuring the #1 Country hits "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and "The Dance."
1990 - Sinead O'Connor refuses to appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in protest of the guest host, comedian Andrew Dice Clay.
1992 - The Eagles' Don Henley leads 6,000 fans through Walden Woods in Massachusetts as part of a benefit walk to save the literally significant woods popularized by Henry Thoreau's work.
1994 - Hole release their major-label debut album, Live Through This, exactly one week after the suicide of Kurt Cobain, husband of the band's frontwoman, Courtney Love.
1995 - Dave Grohl's new band Foo Fighters starts a club tour in Tempe, Arizona, opening for Mike Watt. Grohl is also Watt's drummer for the tour, and an incognito Eddie Vedder is his guitarist.
1999 - Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II becomes just the fourth album certified by the RIAA as Double Diamond for sales of over 20 million in the US, following Thriller, Eagles - Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975 and The Wall.
1999 - Backstreet Boys release "I Want It That Way."
2005 - Mariah Carey released The Emancipation of Mimi, the album entered the US chart at number one, going six times platinum in less than a year, and subsequently became the most successful album of 2005.
2007 - In Omaha, Nebraska, Kenny Chesney launches his Flip Flop Summer tour. 17-year-old Taylor Swift was going to be an opening act on the tour but had to bow out when Cruzan Rum came on as a sponsor. Chesney makes it up to her with a note of encouragement and a big check that helps line up her own tour in 2009.
2011 - Ed Sheeran is due to play a free show at The Barfly in Camden, London. Over 1000 fans turn up, prompting Sheeran to play four separate sets, including one on the street outside the venue once it had closed.
2013 - Five years after the release of Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy issue their pop-leaning comeback album, Save Rock and Roll, featuring the hit "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)."
2014 - The Pulp hit 'Common People' was voted the top Britpop anthem by listeners of BBC Radio 6 Music in the UK, beating Oasis, Blur and Suede to take the title. More than 30,000 people voted, with The Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony' second and Oasis tracks 'Don't Look Back in Anger' and 'Wonderwall' in third and fourth.
2016 - A report showed that British artists including Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Adele had helped the music industry return to meaningful growth for the first time in almost 20 years. British artists accounted for five of the top 10 selling albums during 2015, as the global music industry generated $15bn (£10.5bn).
2016 - A US court ruled that Led Zeppelin founders Robert Plant and Jimmy Page must face trial in a copyright row over the song 'Stairway to Heaven'. The copyright infringement action had been brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe, who played on the same bill as Led Zeppelin in the 1960s, and claimed he should be given a writing credit on the track.
2023 - "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee becomes the first reggaeton song entered into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Other songs added include "Margaritaville" and "Stairway To Heaven."
