1778 - New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock creates the $ symbol.

1873 - Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff is born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. When he was only 19, his Prelude in C Sharp Minor was a tremendous success — throughout his life, it was the only piece audiences always demanded that he play. His Symphony # 1 was not well received when it was premiered in St. Petersburg (1897), and he fell into despair which was only cured by hypnosis. Rachmaninoff dedicated his Piano Concerto # 2 to his hypnotist, and it became one of the best-loved piano concertos of the 20th century.


1876 - The first official National League baseball game is played. (Boston-6, Philadelphia-5)

1891 - French painter Paul Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti.

1895 - Blues singer Alberta Hunter is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She had a big career, singing with Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, and others. Then, for twenty years, she dropped out of music and worked as a scrub nurse at a hospital on Roosevelt Island, until, at the age of 80, she made a comeback, singing into her 100s.

1915 - Blues master Willie Dixon is born

1917 - Scott Joplin, ragtime's greatest composer, dies of syphilis in New York at age 48.


1918 - Henry Miller's Theater opens at 124 W 43rd St., New York City.

1927 - The automatic record changer is introduced by His Master's Voice, later RCA Victor.

1930 - Blue Angel, starring a then unknown Marlene Dietrich, premieres in America.

1935 - The first radio tube made of metal is announced in Schenectady, NY.

1938 - The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, NY

1939 - Singer Rudolph Isley of The Isley Brothers is born in Cincinnati.

1939 - Actress (Love Story, Goodbye Columbus, The Getaway) and future Santa Fe resident Ali MacGraw is born in Pound Ridge, NY.


1942 - Alan Blakley of the Tremeloes (There Goes My Baby) is born. The Tremeloes would have the dubious distinction of being signed by Decca Records INSTEAD of the Beatles.

1945 - Future Turtles drummer John Barbata is born in New Jersey.

1946 - Ronnie Lane is born in Plaistow, England. A bassist with the Small Faces, he gave it all up to tour with his own circus.

1948 - Carolyn Robinson and Neal Cassady are married. Carolyn's ring, plate silver set with rhinestones, is from Woolworth's. Judge Clayton Golden performs the $10.00 ceremony, and the newlyweds toast the occasion with two beers in a grimy diner, where the bride picks up the tab.

1952 - The Big Bang theory is proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow.


1952 - The US performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.

1953 - Film director Barry Sonnenfeld (When Harry Met Sally, Big, Misery) is born.

1954 -The late Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro is born in Hartford, CT. Porcaro also contributed his talents to various Steely Dan tracks, including the amazing work, Gaucho.

1955 - Elvis Presley's fourth single, a cover of Arthur Gunter's' Baby, Let's Play House. backed with I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone, is released. Later in the month Presley with Bill Black and Scotty Moore head off to New York to audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts' as has Pat Boone. Presley is rejected and Boone will win first place.

1955 - WTVT TV channel 13 in Tampa-St Petersburg FL (CBS) begins broadcasting.

1956 - Little Willie John records the original version of Fever for King Records. The song would eventually become a big hit for Peggy Lee.

1956 - Elvis Presley does a screen test and signs a three-picture deal with Paramount.

1957 - WYES TV channel 12 in New Orleans LA (PBS) begins broadcasting.


1958 - KVIQ TV channel 6 in Eureka CA (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting.

1964 - John Lennon is reunited with his father Freddie after 17 years

1967 - The Beatles record Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), the last song for the album of the same name.

1969 - The Beach Boys announce they are suing their record label, Capitol, for $2,041,446.64 in royalties and producer's fees for Brian Wilson. The band also announces it's starting its own label, Brothers Records, which will be distributed by Warner/Reprise.

1969 - The three-day Atlantic City Pop Festival opens. Among the performers: Jefferson Airplane, CCR, Little Richard and Joe Cocker.


1970 - John Lennon & Yoko Ono release a hoax that they are having dual sex change operations.

1971 - Six months after his death, Jimi Hendrix's The Cry of Love goes gold. It is the last LP on which the guitarist was a willing participant and some say it might have gone higher than #3 had it not been for an LP by another deceased rock star, Pearl, by Janis Joplin.

1973 John and Yoko declare they are creating a new country called Nutopia. There are no laws and no boundaries. And its national anthem is silence.

1974 - Howlin' Wolf, while performing at Chicago's famed Silvio's, asks for a glass of water to extinguish a fire in a waste basket. When the waitress inadvertently hands him a glass of gasoline, the resulting conflagration burns down the legendary club.


1976 - Freddie Lennon, father of John Lennon, dies at 63

1976 - Max Ernst, German painter and sculptor and founder of the Dada group, dies. He was also involved in the Surrealist movement.


1976 - Stephen Wozniak & Steven Jobs originate Apple Computer.

1980 - Bijou Phillips is born. She is the daughter of Mamas and Papas founder, John Phillips.

1981 - John Lennon's Woman, from Double Fantasy, is certified gold. The 45 is the third Top Ten hit from the LP.

1984 - Soul icon Marvin Gaye is shot to death in Los Angeles by his father during a domestic dispute, one day before his 45th birthday.


1990 - Salem OR passes a law making it illegal to be within 2' of nude dancers.

1991 - Choreographer Martha Graham (Appalachian Spring), dies at 96.

1993 - Carole King, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, Neil Young, Kenny Loggins, Phish, and Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson play a benefit gig in Portland, OR., to save the forests. The forests also get a hand from the torrential downpour over Portland that day.

1999 - U.S. rock and roll pioneer songwriter Jesse Stone, composer of the classic Shake, Rattle & Roll, dies aged 97.

For more day-by-day history go to HistoryUnlimited.net