1741 - The first magazine to be published in the U.S., The American Magazine, or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies goes on sale.



1778 - Spanish composer Fernando Sor is born. He will compose some of the most beautiful works for classical guitar.



1895 - The Lumiere brothers are granted a patent in France for their machine "to film and view chronophotographic proofs" - one of the earliest projectors.


1898 - Upon his release from prison on charges of homosexuality, Oscar Wilde publishes The Ballad of Reading Goal, his cry of prison agony.


1914 - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is formed in New York City. The performance rights society is instrumental in protecting the rights of composers, to earn royalties for the performance of their published and copyrighted works.


1940 - Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and his orchestra records Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues for the Bluebird label.

1942 - Lonnie Johnson records He's A Jelly Roll Baker.

1942 - Peter Tork, bassist with the Monkees, is born.

1950 - Boudleaux Bryant who would write many, many hit songs, including Love Hurts by Nazareth, is born.


1946 - ENIAC is turned on for the first time. Weighing 30 tons and filling an entire room, it is the world's first fully functional electronic digital computer, and about as powerful as a single microchip today.

1960 - France joins the race to the cold war (thus far comprised of the US, USSR and Britain) by exploding their first atomic bomb over the Sahara Desert in Algeria. 

1961 - Frank Sinatra unveils his own recording label, Reprise. Although the Chairman of the Board didn't have a very high regard for that rock & roll music, the label would release recordings by The Beach Boys, The Kinks and Jimi Hendrix.

1967 - The Beatles' new single Penny Lane backed with Strawberry Fields Forever is released in the U.S. four days before its U.K. release. The record indicates their direction toward electronically produced sounds. It will hit Number One in the U.S. and #2 in the U.K.

1969 - The Doors' single Touch Me and Sly and the Family Stone's single Everyday People win gold records.

1970 - The Doors play two shows at The Allen Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. At the start of the first show, Jim sprints onstage, picks up some maracas and announces "We're gonna have a real good time!," upon which, the band launches into Roadhouse Blues. The Doors give the audience a very solid show. Jim is quite animated and spontaneous. They close the show with an extended version of Light My Fire, but do not return for an encore.

As it turns out, the first show is only a warm up for an exciting second show, which concludes with three encores. Jim seems to really come alive, frequently joking with the audience. He is very playful, disconnecting the microphone's stand and neck from the base, and parading around with it as if it were a baton, then humorously threatening to spear the audience with it like a chrome javelin. After Light My Fire the audience is filing toward the exits when Jim reappears to tell them the band isn't ready to call it a night, and they break into a blues medley as the audience races for their seats. They wrap up with a grand finale of Break On Through.


1972 - Strange but true: Led Zeppelin is forced to cancel a concert in Singapore when officials won't let them off the plane because of their long hair.


1974 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union.



1979 - Jean Renoir, French film maker and son of Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir, dies at 84. His films Nana, La Grande Illusion, La Bete Humaine,"The Golden Couch'" and Le Dejeuner sur l´herbe are masterpieces of cinema.

1981 - Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of Moon becomes the longest-running rock LP on the Billboard chart, finishing up its 402nd week.


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