On this day today:
1913 - Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters is born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
1932 - Music mogul Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records, is born in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to working with artists like Kelly Clarkson, TLC, Alicia Keys, and Aretha Franklin, he will help launch the careers of Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow.
1952 - Blues guitarist Gary Moore (of Thin Lizzy) is born Robert William Gary Moore in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1968 - US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed after being shot on a Memphis motel balcony. King's life inspires a number of songs, including U2's "Pride (In The Name Of Love)."
1969 - CBS cancels the highly rated but controversial Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Artists to appear on the show include The Who, The Doors and Jefferson Airplane.
1987 - Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond and used in the movie Mannequin, hits #1 in the US.
1992 - Beastie Boys make their first concert appearance playing instruments at a show at The Palladium in Los Angeles.
1996 - Take That made their final performance on The Ivo Niehe Show on Dutch TV, playing two songs in front of a 250 strong studio audience.
2003 - The Rolling Stones make their stage debut in India, performing at Bangalore Palace in the middle of a monsoon!
2003 - 50 Cent became the best-selling artist in the US so far this year when his latest album Get Rich or Die Tryin' sold more than four million copies in two months. It went on to be the best-selling album of 2003, selling 12 million copies worldwide by the end of the year.
2007 - A Swedish couple ran into trouble with authorities after trying to name their baby Metallica. Michael and Karolina Tomaro went to court with the country's National Tax Authority about naming their daughter after the rock band. The six-month-old had been baptised Metallica, but tax officials said the name was "inappropriate". Under Swedish law, both first names and surnames need to win the approval of authorities before they can be used.
2008 - New Kids on the Block announce their upcoming reunion tour during NBC's Today show in New York City.
2008 - Procol Harum's Gary Brooker wins an appeal in London to an earlier ruling, which stated that Harum organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to 40 percent of the royalties from the band's 1967 smash "A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Though the new ruling notes that Fisher wrote the organ line and should be co-credited, it also overturns the royalty award by noting that Fisher waited 38 years to sue.
2008 - The Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones concert documentary Shine A Light hits theaters. The next week, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jack White appear on the cover of Rolling Stone with the headline, "Blues Brothers."
2008 - After years of quiet courtship, Jay-Z and Beyonce get married in a secret ceremony, becoming the most powerful couple in entertainment.
2009 - At the Public Hall in Cleveland, Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Metallica, Run-DMC and Bobby Womack are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
2012 - The single "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber debuts at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It's the third-highest first-week sale at 600,000 copies sold. Lots of teenage girls want to be Bieber's girlfriend.
2015 - Kendrick Lamar's landmark album To Pimp A Butterfly flies to #1 in America.
2016 - It was reported that David Bowie had dominated the UK album charts for the first quarter of 2016. Bowie had the most entries to the chart with six albums in the top 40, after fans sought out his music in the wake of his death in January with his final album Blackstar becoming the second best selling album of the year so far, (behind Adele's 25).
2022 - Jack Harlow previews his song "First Class" on TikTok with an eight-second snippet four days before its official release. It quickly spreads on the platform and helps the song debut at #1, setting up a new paradigm for launching music.
2023 - The first truly believable AI-generated song appears online, posted to TikTok by an anonymous user. It's called "Heart On My Sleeve," and mimics the voices of Drake and The Weeknd. It quickly spreads to streaming services and is continually taken down and reposted, raising the issue of copyright with AI music.
2024 - The Swedish entertainment company founded by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus announced they had acquired the music catalogue, including master recordings and publishing rights and the name and likeness of KISS for $300m. Pophouse said they planned to use the deal to create a live music show featuring avatars of the members of Kiss, similar to Abba Voyage.
