1955 : Elvis Presley, (with Scotty Moore and Bill Black), Slim Whitman, Hoot and Curley, Johnny Horton, Tibby Edwards and Floyd Cramer all appeared at the Louisiana Hayride broadcast from Shreveport Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, and shown on KWKH Television.

1957 : Elvis Presley appears for the first time outside the United States, performing at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This and a show the next day in Ottawa would be the only Elvis concerts ever given outside the US.

1964 : The Beatles had their fourth UK No.1 single with ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’ With advanced sales of over 2.1 million, it holds the record for the greatest advanced orders for a single in the UK.

1964 : The Beach Boys recorded their next single ‘I Get Around’, which became their first US No.1 in the summer of this year.

1965 : The Who made their first radio appearance on the UK BBC’s ‘Joe Loss Pop Show.’

1966 : A charity concert at The Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California, took place featuring, Jan and Dean, Sonny & Cher, The Mamas And The Papas, The Turtles, Otis Redding, Donovan and Bob Lind.

1966 : Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass become the first act with four albums in the Top 10 simultaneously. Alpert’s albums spent more weeks at #1 in 1966 than The Beatles.

1967 : Steve Winwood leaves The Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason.

1967 : An overzealous audience member throws a smoke bomb onto the stage at The Rolling Stones concert at the Town Hall in Vienna, Austria, leading to a riot and the arrest of 154 fans.

1968 : Jimi Hendrix appeared at the Paul Sauve Arena, Montreal, Canada.

1969 : Bruce Springsteen’s new group Child made their live debut at the Pandemonium Club in Wanamassa, New Jersey.

1970 : Phil Spector completed final editing and mixing for The Beatles Let It Be album, 16 months after the ‘Get Back project had begun.

1971 : Janis Joplin’s LP Pearl hits #1.

1973 : John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold a news conference in New York to announce that they’ll appeal the Immigration Department’s decision to deport John.

1975 : The Bay City Rollers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of The Four Seasons song ‘Bye Bye Baby.’ It gave the Scottish group the best selling single of 1975.

1977 : Abba were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their fifth No.1 ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You.’ The song was also a Top 10 hit in over 15 countries.

1977 : Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Rumours.’ Also on this day Fleetwood Mac kicked off a 7-date UK tour at the Odeon, Birmingham, England.

1977 : Frank Sinatra scored his first ever UK No.1 album with ‘Portrait Of Sinatra’, his 46th album release.

1981 : CBS records launched the ‘Nice Price’ series of back catalogue albums in the UK. The first batch priced at $4.50 included early albums by Bob Dylan, Santana, Billy Joel, Abba, Janis Joplin and Simon and Garfunkel.

1983 : Pink Floyd scored their third UK No.1 album with ‘The Final Cut.’

1987 : One of the greatest jazz drummers of all time, Buddy Rich died aged 69 due to complications caused by a brain tumour. Rich worked with many acts including, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey’s band, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson. Rush’s Neil Peart organized a pair of 90s tribute albums (titled Burning for Buddy), which also featured the work of Kenny Aronoff, Dave Weckl, Steve Gadd, Max Roach, Steve Smith and Matt Sorum.

1987 : U2 kicked off their 29-date North American Joshua Tree tour at Arizona State Activity Centre.

1990 : Eric Clapton was fined $460 with $15 costs by Walton-on- Thames Magistrates court, after being booked for speeding at 105mph; Clapton was also banned from driving for three months. Wow how could Eric afford that?

1990 : Nirvana went into Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin and started work on demo versions of ‘In Bloom’, ‘Dive’, ‘Lithium’, ‘Pay To Play’, ‘Imodium’, ‘Sappy’ and ‘Polly’ with Butch Vig producing.

1991 : LL Cool J gave a pair of sneakers to every student and teacher at The Thompson Middle School in Dorchester, to celebrate them winning the ‘foot locker cool school video’ contest.

1993 : The London press announces that the son of Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman is engaged to the mother of Bill’s ex-wife Mandy Smith. The engagement is called off a few months later, but is fun tabloid fodder while it lasts.

1994 : Courtney Love hires a private detective to track down her missing husband, Kurt Cobain.

1997 : Joni Mitchell was reunited with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter she gave up for adoption 32 years earlier.

1998 : Metallica kicked off their 61-date Poor Re-Touring Me Tour at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, Australia.

1999 : The Black Crowes played a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee. Joshua Harmon, a teenager sitting in the second row sued the band a year later for $5,000 claiming significant hearing loss.

2001 : Mariah Carey signed the richest recording deal in history. The 31-year old singer signed a deal with Virgin for three albums worth $92m. The singer had sold over 120 million records worldwide, scoring 14 US No.1 singles.

2003 : US soul singer Edwin Starr died at his British home in Nottingham aged 61. Formed The Future Tones in 1957, had the 1970 US No.1 and UK No.3 anti-Vietnam War protest song ‘War’, (which according to Starr was recorded in one take).

2004 : Coldplay singer Chris Martin was accused of attacking a photographer after leaving a London restaurant with his wife Gwyneth Paltrow. A Coldplay spokesman said photographer Alessandro Copetti had been running after Paltrow’s taxi and tripped. Mr Copetti said he had been taking pictures of the singer and his wife outside a restaurant when Martin kicked him from behind.

2006 : A John Lennon schoolbook containing the 12-year-old’s drawing of Lewis Carroll’s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter was sold at auction for $239,733. The poem inspired Lennon to write The Beatles’ 1967 song ‘I Am the Walrus’. Also sold for $22,741 was a ship’s log book written by Lennon during a stormy trip to Bermuda in 1980, and a letter from Paul McCartney to his bandmates Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr failed to reach its $94,742 reserve price.

2008 : The Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones film Shine A Light hits theatres as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jack White hit Rolling Stone’s cover.

2013 : A grand piano used in the Motown Records studios was fully restored and put on display at a museum dedicated to the legendary record label in Detroit. Sir Paul McCartney helped fund the restoration of the 1877 Steinway, which was originally in Motown’s Studio B. and was used to create hits for names including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Edwin Starr.

2013 : Coldplay beat the likes of Pink Floyd and The Beatles to the top of a BBC Radio 2 poll to find listeners’ favourite album of all time. ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’, Coldplay’s second album, which was released in 2002, came top of the list. Keane’s ‘Hopes And Fears’ took second place, with Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’ in third. Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ came fourth, while The Beatles’ 1967 classic ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ could only manage eighth place. The poll was held to tie in with the recent BBC season The Golden Age of the Album.