1850 - The city of Los Angeles is incorporated.

1859 - Daniel Emmett introduces Wish I was in Dixie’s Land (later named Dixie) in New York City. Just two years later, the song became the Civil War song of the Confederacy.

1914 - The first known serialized moving picture opens in New York City. The Perils of Pauline starred Pearl White.

1915 - Blues guitarist and singer Muddy Waters is born in Rolling Fork, MS. His real name was McKinley Morganfield.

1924 - Bessie Smith records Rocking Chair Blues for Columbia Records.

1932 - Actor Anthony Perkins is born. Best known for his role in Psycho, he also appeared in The Sins of Dorian Gray, Mahogany, Murder on the Orient Express and On the Beach among other films.

1934 - Legendary record exec Clive Davis is born.

1935 - Bumble Bee Slim records Bricks In My Pillow.

1938 - Curtis Jones records Reckless Life Blues.

1939 - Glenn Miller records his theme song, Moonlight Serenade for Bluebird Records. Previously, the Miller theme had been Gone with the Dawn and before then, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.

1948 - Bassist Berry Oakley of the Allman Brothers Band is born today in Chicago.

1954 - Maestro Arturo Toscanini conducts his last concert with the NBC Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The performance would end a 17-year association with the orchestra.

1960 - Billboard reports RCA Victor Records will release all pop singles at the same time in mono and stereo, the first record company to do so. Elvis Presley's first post-army single, Stuck on You, is RCA's first mono-stereo release.

1964 - B.B. King records Help The Poor in New York City for ABC Records.

1964 - As the Beatles establish a lockdown on the top five chart positions (in order from #1 to #5, Can't Buy Me Love, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me.), Billboard writes that 'just about everyone is tired of Beatles. Disc jockeys are tired of playing the hit group, the writers of trade and consumer publications are tired of writing about them and the manufacturers of products other than Beatles records are tired of hearing about them. Everyone's tired of the Beatles - except the listening and buying public.' on the same day, the Rolling Stones release their self-titled debut album as an antidote to all the Beatlemania.

1965 - Actor Robert Downey Jr. is born. Despite a troubled personal life, his talent wins him many plum roles, including those in Chaplin, Ally McBeal, Richard III, Natural Born Killers, Short Cuts, Soapdish, and The Singing Detective.

1967 - Johnny Carson quits The Tonight Show. He will return three weeks later with an additional $30,000 a week salary. Hi yo!

1967 - Paul McCartney advises Beatles publicist and Monterey Pop Festival organizer Derek Taylor that they should book some guitarist named Jimi Hendrix.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. is shot and killed on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. Riots break out in 30 American cities, leaving 39 dead. James Brown goes on national television to urge restraint and constructive channeling of anger. In New York, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy play an all-night tribute to the slain leader.

1968 - Otis Spann writes Blues For Martin Luther King and Hotel Lorraine and performs them for his friend Muddy Waters, whose birthday celebration was greatly dampened by the assassination of Dr. King.  Recordings of those two April 4th, 1968 performances can be heard on Rare Chicago Blues Bullseye BB 9530.

1970 - Janis Joplin plays a reunion concert in San Francisco with her old outfit Big Brother & the Holding Company.

1984 - Bob Bell retires as Bozo the Clown on WGN-TV in Chicago, IL. Bell was an institution in the Windy City since making his first appearance in 1960.

1996 - Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah, scatter part of Garcia's ashes in the Ganges River in India.

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