1931 : The first long-playing record, a 33 1/3 rpm recording, was demonstrated at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York by RCA-Victor. The venture was doomed to fail however due to the high price of the record players, which started around $95 (about $1140 in today’s dollars) and wasn’t revived until 1948.

1952 : Frank Sinatra does his last recording session for Columbia Records. His next musical move is signing to Capitol Records, where he teams up with arranger Nelson Riddle and revives his career with swinging hits like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Witchcraft.”

1955 : After DJ’s keep complaining that Les Paul’s “Magic Melody” single ends abruptly, Capitol Records releases the shortest single of all time, Les Paul’s “Magic Melody Part 2,” which is merely the final two notes of the old “shave and a haircut” tag. Released only as a promo, it lasts exactly one second.

1955 : The Perry Como Show moves to NBC-TV, expanding from three 15-minute programs per week to one hour-long variety show on Saturday night.

1956 : The BBC announced the removal of Bill Haley and His Comets’ ‘Rockin’ Through The Rye’ from its playlist because they felt the song went against traditional British standards, (and included the lyrics “All the lassies rock with me when rockin’ through the rye”). The record, based on an 18th century Scottish Folk tune, was at No.5 on the UK charts.

1962 : The Beatles played the last of three Monday night gigs at The Queen’s Hall, Widnes, Cheshire. Also on the bill, Billy Kramer and the Coasters, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and Sonny Kaye and the Reds. Tickets cost 3/6.

1964, Police arrived at a Rolling Stones gig at the ABC Theatre in Carlisle, England, after a trouble broke out with the 4,000 fans at the concert.

1964 : Charles Finley, who owns the Kansas City Athletics baseball team, pays The Beatles $150,000 to play a show at his Municipal Stadium. The Beatles add their version of Kansas City to the setlist, marking their only American performance of the song. Tickets cost $4.50.

1967 : The Doors were banned from The Ed Sullivan Show after Jim Morrison broke his agreement with the show’s producers. Morrison said before the performance that he wouldn’t sing the words, ‘Girl, we couldn’t get much higher,’ from ‘Light My Fire’ but did anyway. The Doors also performed their new single ‘People Are Strange.’

1968 : 5th Dimension’s Stoned Soul Picnic is certified gold.

1968 : Recorded on this day, Diana Ross – “Love Child”

1967 : Keith Moon of The Who rigs his bass drum to explode at the end of My Generation during the group’s appearance on CBS-TV’s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but doesn’t realize that the stage crew had already set the charge. The resulting explosion cuts Moon’s leg, singes Pete Townshend’s hair, and startles fellow guests Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney.

1969 : Media on both sides of the Atlantic were running stories that said Paul McCartney was dead. He was supposedly killed in a car accident in Scotland on November 9th, 1966 and that a double had been taking his place for public appearances. In fact, Paul and his girlfriend Jane Asher were on vacation in Kenya at the time.

1969 : Tiny Tim announces his forthcoming marriage to “Miss Vicki” Budinger, which would break records for TV viewership when the ceremony is broadcast on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The two are separated three years later, and divorce in 1977.

1973 : Recorded on this day, Billy Joel – “Piano Man”

1974 : No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” by Barry White

1974 : Recorded on this day, Bob Dylan – “Shelter From the Storm”, “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”

1975 : Mayor Stephen Juba of Winnipeg, Canada, declares today “Guess Who Day” in honor of its native sons.

1976 : The Sex Pistols played a gig for the inmates at Chelmsford Prison, Essex in England.

1978 : The video for Queen’s single Bicycle Race was filmed at Wimbledon Stadium, Wimbledon, UK. It featured 65 naked female professional models racing around the stadium’s track on bicycles, which had been hired for the day. The rental company was reported to have requested payment for all the saddles when they found out how their bikes had been used.

1983 : Paul Young scored his first UK No.1 album with his debut release ‘No Parlez.’ The album returned to the top of the charts on four other occasion’s spending a total of 119 weeks on the chart.

1983 : Vanessa Williams, who would become a popular actress and score a #1 hit with Save The Best For Last, becomes the first black Miss America. She gives up the title the next year after naked photos of her appear in Penthouse.

1991 : Rob Tyner lead singer with the American hard rock band MC5 died after he suffered a heart attack in the seat of his parked car in his hometown of Berkley, Michigan. MC5, (shortened from the Motor City Five), formed in Detroit, in 1965, they released their first album, ‘Kick Out the Jams’ in 1969.

1991 : Over 4 million copies of Guns N’ Roses album, ‘Use Your Illusion I’ and ‘Use Your Illusion II’ were simultaneously released for retail sale, making it the largest ship-out in pop history in the US.

1997 : Fleetwood Mac begin their first tour in 20 years at the Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut. The tour would produce a live album called The Dance.

1998 : A 19-year-old named Amit Singh is removed from the plane in Denver after harassing the members of Hootie & the Blowfish on their flight from New York to Los Angeles.

1999 : English singer Frankie Vaughan died of heart failure aged 71. During the 1950’s he scored twenty UK Top 30 singles including the UK No.2 ‘Green Door.’ He was awarded an OBE in 1965, and a CBE in 1996

2000 : Paula Yates was found dead in bed from a suspected drug overdose. Yates had presented the UK music TV show ‘The Tube’ during the 80’s, married Bob Geldof and was the girlfriend of INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

2003 : Moore and Bode Cigars were suing P Diddy after film footage of their “secret” production process turned up in his latest video. The company claimed an unidentified cameraman filmed their “unique method of rolling cigars” which was then used in the rappers ‘Shake Ya Tailfeather’ video without permission.

2004 : Israeli police arrested two of Madonna’s bodyguards after they assaulted photographers waiting for the singer outside her hotel. Madonna was in Israel with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical offshoot.

2007 : Barry Manilow cancelled his plans to appear on the TV talk show The View because he did not want to be interviewed by its conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, an abortion opponent and supporter of the Iraq war. Manilow had requested to speak only with co-hosts Joy Behar, Barbara Walters or Whoopi Goldberg, but the show’s producers refused to comply with what they called Manilow’s “completely disrespectful” demands.

2011 : Adele went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Someone Like You’. The track was also No.1 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom.

2011 : The estate of Jimi Hendrix gave the go-ahead for another round of archival releases nearly 41 years to the day after the singer’s death. The four new products included an expanded version of his landmark Winterland concerts in 1968, a revamp of a 1972 live compilation, an upgraded DVD of his final U.K. festival gig, and a DVD reissue of some old talk- show appearances.