| 81 | years ago | 1945 | Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd, is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Elvis Presley releases Heartbreak Hotel |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers is born in Hartlepool, England. |
| 68 | years ago | 1958 | Little Richard enters Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. It's a school for blacks run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Little Richard explains while flying over the Philippines on tour, the wing on his plane caught fire and his prayers that the flames go out were answered. As a result, he says he's giving up rock & roll so he can serve God. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Elvis Presley receives his 29th gold record for Can't Help falling in Love, just weeks after getting one for the soundtrack to his seventh movie, Blue Hawaii. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Rolling Stones appear as judges on the British rate-a-record TV show Juke Box Jury. Their somewhat impolite behavior on the set causes a furor in the British press. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Otis Redding's (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay is released, 6 weeks after he is killed in a plane crash. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Bee Gees make their U.S. debut with two concerts at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. They put $50,000 in their pockets and immediately head back to England without appearing elsewhere in the states. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | The New Seekers receive a gold record for I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing. It's a tune that will be better remembered as the music for the Coca-Cola commercials. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Mahalia Jackson, who once remarked that she sang “because I was lonely,” dies on this date. The gospel singer had been in ill-health ever since her heart attack in 1964. She was 60 years old. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | A $2 million suit is brought against attorney Michael Lippman by his former client, David Bowie. Bowie charges that Lippman took a 15-percent agent's fee instead of the customary ten percent and that he withheld $475,000 after being dismissed by Bowie. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Singer Michael Jackson suffers scalp and neck burns when his hair catches fire in an accidental explosion on the set of a Pepsi commercial. The commercial debuts on MTV on February 27, 1984 with the fire scene edited out. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | “Tom Petty Day” is declared in the musician's hometown of Gainesville, Florida. |
| 33 | years ago | 1993 | Warner Brothers Records announces that it is releasing rapper Ice-T from his contract due to “creative differences.” The previous summer the record company found itself in the middle of the controversy over Ice-T's song, Cop Killer. |
| 15 | years ago | 2011 | Phil Anselmo travels from his country place on the Northshore to play The Hangar in New Orleans with Arson Anthem, his new hardcore punk band. The ex-Pantera vocalist now runs the Housecore record label, which includes acts such as haarp, Warbeast, and ex-New Orleans Saint Kyle Turley and Ponykiller. The show at The Hangar features all of them. |