1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon, a former governor of Puerto Rico, reaches Florida, naming it for Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida, flowering Paschal Feast). He claims the land for Spain.



1743 - Handel's Messiah oratorio is given its first performance, at the Covent Garden Theatre, in London. When the Hallelujah Chorus began, King George the Second leaped to his feet, and everyone else in the theater followed suit - a tradition that is still observed today.

1775 - Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death"

1840 - A photographer named Draper takes the first successful photo, a daguerrotype, of the Moon.

1868 - The University of California is founded in Oakland.

1891 - The first jazz concert is held at Carnegie Hall







1905 (or 1908?) - Joan Crawford is born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas. She would go on to win the Academy award for her role in Mildred Pierce in 1945.
She died May 10, 1977.








1910 - Film director Akira Kurosawa is born. His films include: Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Ran, Rhapsody in August, The Idiot, The Bad Sleep Well. He died Sep 6, 1998.






1913 - Jack London writes to Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells to ask what they are paid for their "stuff."

1918 - Ernest Hemingway sails for Europe to participate in World War I as a medical assistant to the Italian army.

1922 - Fresno California's KMJ-AM and WEW-AM in Saint Louis Missouri begin radio transmissions







1923 - Arthel L. "Doc" Watson is born in Deep Gap, Watauga County, North Carolina.








1925 - Tennessee becomes the first state to outlaw teaching the theory of evolution


1933 - Actress Monique van Vooren is born. Her films include Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, Ash Wednesday and Sugar Cookies.








1936 - Louisiana Red is born in Vicksburg, MS.
The blues guitar legend played with John Lee Hooker.








1949 - The Cars' Ric Ocasek is born in Baltimore, MD

1957 - Tony award winning actress and daughter of actor Christopher Plummer, Amanda Plummer is born. Her roles include: Agnes of God; The Fisher King, Joe Versus the Volcano, The World According to Garp, and Pulp Fiction.

1960 - Elvis Presley takes the train from Nashville to Miami to record a TV show with Frank Sinatra. The special is to welcome him home from the Army.


1963 - The Beach Boys release Surfin U.S.A.



1964 - John Lennon's first book, In His Own Write is published.



1964 - Actor Peter Lorre (Casino Royale), dies at 59



1967 - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., calls the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.

1969 - In direct response to the incident at the Dinner Key Auditorium, thirty thousand people, including Jackie Gleason, Kate Smith, the Lettermen and Anita Bryant appear at the "Rally for Decency" in Miami. Announcements publicizing the rally warn '"longhairs and weird dressers" won't be let inside. Four days later, President Richard Nixon sends a letter of congratulation and appreciation to the organizers of the rally.



1971 - USSR performs an underground nuclear test



1972 - Pink Floyd spends the first of eight days recording performances at Pompeii, Italy's Roman amphitheater.



1973 - Derek and the Dominos in Concert, the two record set released well over a year after the short-lived group's break-up, goes gold.



1973 - Yoko Ono is granted permission to live in the U.S. permanently.

1973 - The US performs a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site

1975 - The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Carlos Santana, the Doobie Brothers, Neil Young and special guest Bob Dylan play the Bill Graham-run benefit SNACK (Students Need Athletics, Culture & Kicks) benefit concert at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium. The proceeds were meant to go toward a shortfall in San Francisco's education budget, but the school board announces a day before the concert that it has "found" the necessary $2 million.

1980 - France performs a nuclear test

1985 - Janine Deckers, better known as The Singing Nun, commits suicide in Belgium at 52

It seems concert goers must have cleaned Thompkins Square Park out of daffodils on the way to the Fillmore East, because throughout the show, they are throwing them onto the stage. During an instrumental passage, Jim Morrison gathers them up and methodically places them on the instruments. During Light My Fire, his mischievous side comes out to play, as he pokes a large handful of the flowers at John, and flutters them under his nose. One account has Morrison walloping him over the head with the flowers!

The Doors premiere their film The Unknown Soldier again this evening, following it with a performance of the song.

As the band breaks into the opening number for the second show, Jim gives another acrobatic entrance. He runs out and grabs the rising curtain, holding on tightly while it glides toward the ceiling. After climbing to a considerable height, he finally lets go, and dramatically plunges to the stage beside his microphone stand. Leaping up, he grabs the microphone just in time to burst into the introductory scream which characteristically launches the show.

When the show is over, and the patrons begin leaving the building, Bill Graham comes on stage and makes the announcement that the Doors would like to perform an extra encore. The audience quickly returns to their seats, as the band breaks into an extended encore which becomes an additional hour of music.

Unfortunately, no known recordings of these shows exist, although it is quite possible there are recordings of one or more shows out there somewhere.

Visit Waiting for the Sun's Special Section on The Doors at the Fillmore East, for a history of the venue, accounts of the shows, and photos. 

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