1942 : Capitol Records first recording session takes place when “The General Jumped at Dawn” by Paul Whiteman’s New Yorker Hotel Orchestra is recorded at Radio Recorders Studio in Los Angeles. The record flops, but Capitol soon becomes the most successful record company of the era.

1942 : The musical film Yankee Doodle Dandy is released. Starring James Cagney, the film features the song “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” based upon “Yankee Doodle,” a long-time standard American anthem.

1954 : Kitty Kallen’s “Little Things Mean A Lot” hits #1.

1956 : Elvis Presley appeared on ABC-TV’s ‘Milton Berle Show’. During the performance, Presley abruptly halted an uptempo rendition of ‘Hound Dog’ with a wave of his arm and launched into a slow, grinding version accentuated with energetic, exaggerated body movements. Presley’s gyrations created a storm of controversy.

1958 : Johnny Mathis’ LP Johnny’s Greatest Hits hits #1.

1959 : Bob Zimmerman graduated from high school in Hibbing, Minnesota. Zimmerman was known as a greaser to classmates in the remote rural community, because of his long sideburns and leather jacket.

1960 : Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” enters the charts

1961 : Roy Orbison went to No.1 on the US chart with ‘Running Scared’, it made No.9 in the UK. The B-side ‘Love Hurts’ also picked up significant airplay, making Orbison’s recording the first version to be a hit.

1964 : The Rolling Stones played their first-ever live date in the US when they appeared at the Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, California. The Stones were supporting their first album release The Rolling Stones, in North America.

1964 : The first recording featuring David Bowie is released. He’s still known as David Jones when “Liza Jane” by David Jones and the King Bees comes out.

1965 : The soundtrack album to ‘The Sound of Music’ started a 10-week run at No.1 on the UK chart. It returned to the top of the charts on no less than 11 other occasions spending over 380 weeks on the chart.

1966, At the Marquee Club, London ‘The Bowie Showboat’, a lunchtime performance from David Bowie, ‘three hours of music and mime’, plus a Top Ten disco. Admission was $0.42.

1966 : Gladys Presley, Elvis’ mother, awakens suddenly in Memphis, convinced that her boy is in danger; at that moment, Elvis’ first pink Cadillac catches on fire while en route from Fulton, AR. Elvis is unharmed.

1968 : Recorded on this day, The Beatles – “Don’t Pass Me By”

1968 : The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared on the Dusty Springfield TV show ‘It Music Be Dusty’, filmed on ATV, in London, England. Hendrix performed ‘Stone Free’ and ‘Voodoo Chile’ and then played a version of ‘Mockingbird’ with Dusty Springfield.

1968 : Senator Robert Kennedy is shot three times while exiting through a kitchen at a hotel where he delivered a speech after winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. This event prompts David Crosby to write Long Time Gone and The Rolling Stones to insert the lyrics, “Who killed the Kennedys?” to their new song, Sympathy For The Devil.

1969 : The Doors concert documentary Feast Of Friends premieres at the Cinematheque in Los Angeles.

1969 : Donovan and Joan Baez perform at a rally for nuclear disarmament in London.

1971 : Grand Funk Railroad smashed the record held by The Beatles when they sold out New York’s Shea Stadium in 72 hours.

1971 : Paul McCartney’s second solo album ‘Ram’ started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK chart. Featuring the US No.1 single ‘Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey’.

1972 : Maureen McGovern (“The Morning After”) quits her full-time secretarial job in order to follow her dream of being a professional singer.

1974 : Recorded on this day, Patti Smith – “Hey Joe”

1974 : Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone marries his first wife, Kathy Silva, onstage before his show at Madison Square Garden. Bishop Stewart, the singer’s uncle, officiates before the crowd of 19,000; Silva files for divorce five months later.

1975 : During recording sessions for Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, Syd Barrett turned up out of the blue as Pink Floyd were listening to playbacks of Shine On You Crazy Diamond — a song that happened to be about Barrett. By that time, the 29-year-old Barrett had shaved off all of his hair (including his eyebrows), become overweight, and his ex-bandmates did not at first recognize him. Barrett eventually left without saying goodbye, and none of the band members ever saw him again.

1976 : The Who, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Little Feat, Outlaws and Streetwalkers appeared at Celtic Football Club, Glasgow, Scotland. Tickets cost $7

1976 : Canadian singer J.J. Barrie was at No.1 in the UK with the single ‘No Charge’. It made J.J. a One hit wonder.

1977 : Alice Cooper’s boa constrictor, a co-star of his live act suffered a fatal bite from a rat it was being fed for breakfast. Cooper held auditions for a replacement and a snake named ‘Angel’ got the gig.

1979 : Blues legend Muddy Waters (aged 64), married Marva Jean Brooks on her 25th birthday.

1983 : During a 48-date North American tour U2 plays the Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado. Despite rain, the concert is intimate and energetic; it is later released as a concert film called “Under a Blood Red Sky”.

1986 : The cable-TV music special Fats Domino And Friends, featuring friends Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis, airs on HBO.

1987 : The Prince’s Trust Rock Gala is held for the fifth time at Wembley Arena in London. The annual charity event features the music of George Harrison, who performs While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Eric Clapton; and Ringo Starr’s version of With A Little Help From My Friends, featuring Jeff Lynne. Other performers include Elton John, Phil Collins, Dave Edmunds, and Ben E. King.

1987 : Sly Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) surrenders to authorities in Fort Meyers, FL for violating his probation (for cocaine possession).

1988 : Pattie Boyd, ex-wife of George Harrison, files for divorce from Eric Clapton, who once wrote the song Layla about her.

1989 : The Doobie Brothers begin their reunion tour, their first with their original lineup since 1975.

1990 : American drummer Jim Hodder drowned in his swimming pool aged 42. He was the original drummer with Steely Dan and also worked with Sammy Hagar and David Soul.

1993 : Country singer Conway Twitty died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He had the 1958 US & UK No.1 single ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. Until 2000, he held the record for the most Number One singles of any country act, with 45 No.1’s. He lived in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, where he built a country music entertainment complex called Twitty City.

1993 : Mariah Carey married the President of Sony Music, Tommy Mottola in Manhattan, guest’s included Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Ozzy Osbourne. (The couple separated in 1997).

1997 : Noel Gallagher married Meg Matthews at the Little Church Of The West in Las Vegas, (where Elvis married Priscilla). The Oasis guitarist divorced Matthews in 2001.

1997 : Ex Small Faces, The Faces and leader of Slim Chance, Ronnie Lane died aged 51 after a 20-year battle with multiple sclerosis. Slim Chance had the 1974 UK No.5 single ‘How Come’.

1999 : Jazz singer and songwriter Mel Torme died aged 73. Biggest hit was the 1956 UK No. 4 single ‘Mountain Greenery’ and his ‘Christmas Song’ (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) has been recorded more than 1,700 times.

2001 : Officials in Singapore threw out an appeal against a ban on Janet Jackson’s latest album, ‘All For You’. They decided that the lyrics of the album, particularly one song, ‘Would You Mind’, were “not acceptable to our society”. The record was initially outlawed because of its “sexually explicit lyrics”, including “I just wanna touch you, tease you, lick you, please you, love you, make love to you.” EMI were attempting a compromise by trying to persuade Jackson’s management to delete ‘Would You Mind’ from the album.

2002 : Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin), bass guitarist with The Ramones died at his Hollywood, California apartment of a heroin overdose aged 49. He was the group’s primary songwriter, penning songs such as ‘Rockaway Beach’, ’53rd & 3rd’, and ‘Poison Heart’.

2005 : Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’ the bands sixth UK No.1 album.

2007 : Jurors in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector were shown the bloody revolver that was found at the feet of Lana Clarkson, the actress he was accused of killing at his home in the early hours of February 3rd, 2003. She had accompanied Spector to his Alhambra, California mansion after meeting him at her job as a hostess at the House of Blues just hours earlier.

2006 : Elliot Easton of The Cars breaks his clavicle when their tour bus swerves to avoid an accident, and Easton falls out of the bunk. Performing with “The New Cars” fronted by Todd Rundgren, he plays four shows in a brace before getting surgery, which ends the tour.

2006 : The right-leaning National Review publishes their list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs. At the top is “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who, which is praised for it’s revolutionary spirit. Next on the list is “Taxman” by The Beatles and “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones.

2007 : Released on this day, Bruce Springsteen – “Live In Dublin” album

2007 : Sir Paul McCartney released his 21st solo album, ‘Memory Almost Full’ on the new Hear Music Starbucks label. It was later announced that all copies sold through UK Starbucks would not be eligible for the UK charts as the 533 stores were not registered with the Official Chart Company. The album was being played non-stop in more than 10,000 Starbucks outlets across 29 countries.

2008 : Ozzy Osbourne accepted undisclosed libel damages and an apology over a UK newspaper claim that he was ill at the Brit Awards. The 59-year-old rocker sued over a story in the Daily Star that alleged he had toppled over twice just before the televised ceremony and that he was moved around the awards in an electric buggy.

2010 : Led Zeppelin were officially voted the nation’s favourite band by the BBC’s ‘I’m In A Rock ‘N` Roll Band’, Zeppelin coming ahead of both The Beatles and Queen in a phone-in vote. The show also featured Best Singer, Guitarist, and Drummer live phone-in votes which saw Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham all nominated in their categories. John Bonham was crowned top drummer ahead of Dave Grohl and Keith Moon, whilst Jimmy and Robert were runners up to Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury respectively.