1954 : Elvis Presley’s second Sun single, Blue Moon Of Kentucky, breaks out in Nashville and New Orleans, becoming his first chart hit outside of his native Memphis.

1960 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: I Want to Be Wanted by Brenda Lee

1961 : Dion started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Runaround Sue’, it reached No.11 in the UK.

1962 : 12 year old Little Stevie Wonder recorded his first single for Motown Records, ‘Thank You For Loving Me All The Way.’

1963 : The Beatles completed the final session for their second album ‘With the Beatles’ recording ‘I Wanna Be Your Man.’ The group then drove to London airport for a flight to Stockholm, Sweden to start their first foreign tour. The Fab four were met at Stockholm airport by hundreds of girl fans that had taken the day of school.

1963 : The Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Mickie Most, The Rolling Stones, Julie Grant and The Flintstones all appeared at Odeon Theatre, Nottingham, England.

1963 : Bob Dylan recorded ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City.

1964 : All four members of US band Buddy and the Kings were killed when they hired a Cesna Skyhawk to take them to a gig in Harris County. Piloted by the bands drummer Bill Daniles, the plane crashed nose first killing all on board. Singer with the group Harold Box had replaced Buddy Holly in The Crickets after his death in a plane crash. He sang lead vocals on ‘Peggy Sue Got Married.’

1965 : The Temptations’ “My Baby” enters the charts

1966 : The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded their first single ‘Hey Joe’, at De Lane Lea studios in London. The earliest known commercial recording of the song is the late-1965 single by the Los Angeles garage band the The Leaves; the band then re-recorded the track and released it in 1966 as a follow-up single which became a hit.

1966 : The Yardbirds, in their first concert featuring Jimmy Page on lead guitar, open at San Francisco’s Fillmore West.

1969 : Columbia Records announces its intention to prosecute the purveyors of Great White Way, an unauthorized collection of unreleased Bob Dylan demos that is often considered the first “bootleg” record.

1970 : Aretha Franklin’s “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” is certified gold.

1972 : The Fifties-revival drama That’ll Be The Day, starring Ringo Starr, David Essex, Keith Moon, Billy Fury and Nashville Teens’ John Hawken, begins filming in England.

1973 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips

1976 : The Jam played an afternoon show in Soho Market, London, England and in the evening, The Clash appeared at The ICA in London.

1976 : Chicago started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘If You Leave Me Now’. It was the group’s 18th Top 40 and first US No.1, also a No.1 in the UK. It went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance.

1976 : Led Zeppelin made their US television debut on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, they performed ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Dazed And Confused’.

1978 : CBS Records becomes the first record label to raise the price of albums to an unheard-of $8.98.

1980 : Mark David Chapman quit his security job and signed out for the last time. Instead of the usual “Chappy” he wrote “John Lennon”. Chapman would murder Lennon on December 8th of this year outside his New York City home.

1982 : Culture Club were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’, the group’s first chart topper and the first of 12 UK Top 40 hits. The song became a major hit after their memorable debut performance on Top of the Pops, when they stood in for Shakin’ Stevens who was ill and not able to appear.

1989 : Nirvana played their first ever European show when the appeared at Newcastle’s Riverside Club in North East England. It was the first night of a 36 date European tour for the group who were sharing the bill with Tad. Smells Like Teen Spirit

1993 : Meat Loaf had his first UK No.1 with ‘I’d Do Anything For Love’ (But I Won’t Do That’). It stayed at No.1 for seven weeks. A No.1 in twenty-eight countries and gave Meat Loaf his first US No.1 hit.

1993 : Take That scored their first UK No.1 album with their second release ‘Everything Changes.’ The album which was nominated for the 1994 Mercury Prize became the third best selling album of 1993 in the UK.

1995 : Def Leppard gave themselves a place in the Guinness book Of World Records, by playing three gigs in three continents in 24 hours. Tangier, London and Vancouver.

1999 : The wife of Los Lobos singer Sandra Ann-Rosas disappeared. Police charged her half brother Gabriel Gomez with the kidnapping and murder.

2001 : R.E.M. plays a surprise show at Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe, which guitarist Peter Buck co-owns with his wife, Stephanie Dorgan.

2002 : A federal judge in St. Louis dismissed a lawsuit against Chuck Berry by Johnnie Johnson, a piano player and former collaborator who wanted royalties for more than 30 songs written between 1955 and 1966. The songs in question included ‘No Particular Place To Go’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, and ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’. Johnson’s lawsuit argued that he and Berry were co-writers on many of the songs, but because Berry copyrighted them in his name alone, Johnson got none of the royalties. The judge ruled that too many years had passed to bring about a royalties suit.

2007 : British and Dutch police shut down a “widely-used” source of illegally-downloaded music after raids in Teesside and Amsterdam as part of an Interpol investigation into the members-only website OiNK. The UK-run site had leaked 60 major pre-release albums this year alone.