| 83 | years ago | 1943 | Beatle George Harrison may or may not have been born. His birth certificate and mother both say his birthday is February 25. But George tells Billboard Magazine in 1994 that he was born today. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Police in Cleveland, Ohio invoke a 1931 ordinance barring people under the age of 18 from dancing in public unless accompanied by an adult. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Dion's The Wanderer peaks at #2 on the pop chart. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Beatles appear for the third time on The Ed Sullivan Show. This time the Fab Four appear via tape and perform three songs. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Beatles begin filming their 2nd movie, Help! |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Bee Gees sign a management contract with Robert Stigwood. He would manage the group through the 70's. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience plays its last British concert at London's Royal Albert Hall before breaking up. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Janis Joplin's Pearl goes gold. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | The Doobie Brothers' Jesus Is Just Alright peaks at #35 on the pop chart. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | The Eagles -- Their Greatest Hits becomes the first album in history to be certified platinum by the R.I.A.A. The new certification represents sales of at least 1 million copies for albums and 2 million copies for singles. The platinum award was started in the early seventies because record sales were so high that most popular recordings surpassed the gold mark in a short period of time. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Police's Roxanne is released. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The Jefferson Starship releases the greatest hits LP Gold, which eventually makes the top 20 on Billboard's LP chart. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | John Lennon's Double Fantasy LP wins a Grammy posthumously for Best Album. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | The 1981 Grammy Award winners are announced. Kim Carnes wins Record and Song of the Year with Bette Davis Eyes, while John Lennon and Yoko Ono win Album of the Year with Double Fantasy. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | The 1986 Grammys are awarded: Paul Simon's Graceland wins Best Album; Steve Winwood's Higher Love wins Best Record and Bruce Hornsby and the Range win Best New Artist. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Fats Domino receives a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th annual Grammy Awards. It is noted that he is “one of the most important links between rhythm & blues and rock and roll.” |
| 38 | years ago | 1988 | Campaigning as a member of the “Wild Party,” Alice Cooper announces he is going to run for Governor of Arizona. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Johnnie Ray passes on as his liver gives out. He is 63 years old. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | Nirvana's Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love in Waikiki, Hawaii. |
| 34 | years ago | 1992 | The U.S. Postal Service unveils 2 versions of its proposed Elvis stamp for fans to vote on. Eventually, the younger Elvis wins, and that stamp is issued on January 8, 1993. |
| 33 | years ago | 1993 | The 1992 Grammys are awarded. Eric Clapton is the big winner, taking home 6 Grammys, including Best Record and Song for Tears In Heaven and Best Album for Unplugged. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham. Accompanying Sir Elton to the ceremony are his parents and his partner David Furnish. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee is arrested and charged with hitting his wife Pamela Anderson Lee. Malibu sheriff deputies were sent to the couple's home after a report of a disturbance. They found Pamela Lee bleeding from an injury to her hand and redness on her back. According to the police, Pamela said the couple had an argument and Tommy attacked her. Pamela had given birth to the couple's second child two months earlier. |
| 28 | years ago | 1998 | John Fogerty is awarded the 1998 Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award. The annual Gibson awards are held the day before the Grammys and recognize the best rock, blues, and jazz guitarists as chosen by music critics and editors of guitar magazines. Also winning awards are Lindsey Buckingham and Sheryl Crow as best male and female rock guitarist. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Mick Jagger's ex-wife Jerry Hall appears briefly in six different London musicals as part of a promotional theatrical marathon. She spends a total of 33 minutes on stage before 9,214 theater-goers, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of Records. |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | The Grey Tuesday event is staged to support a DJ whose remix of The Beatles' “White Album” and Jay-Z's “Black Album” drew legal threats from record company EMI, which owns rights to The Beatles' recordings. 400 websites join the protest and 170 make the remixed tracks available for download. |
| 17 | years ago | 2009 | Blind R&B singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, a New Orleans legend who counted platinum-selling rockers among his fans, dies on Mardi Gras Day at the age of 72. Known for picking strings with his thumbnail, he played and recorded with a host of New Orleans giants, including Professor Longhair, the Wild Magnolias and pianist Allen Toussaint. Musicians including Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, and Bonnie Raitt sought Eaglin out to watch him perform. |