1827 - Composer Ludwig van Beethoven dies in Vienna.

1874 - Walt Whitman dies in Camden, New Jersey, at 72. He became a revolutionary figure in American literature after the publication of his Leaves of Grass. Constantly revising and augmenting this work, he receives the final, ninth, edition on his deathbed.

1874 - Poet Robert Frost is born in San Francisco. Although he will be proclaimed 'the Voice of New England,' he first sees a New England farm at the age of ten. He lived in England for three years, where he published his first two books of poetry, and came back to America a popular favorite. He sometimes farmed and sometimes taught, but mostly he supported himself through his work and his readings. To Frost, 'Poetry is what is lost in translation. It is also what is lost in interpretation.'

1892 - Mrs. Oscar Wilde writes her brother about her husband's arrest and imprisonment: 'I think his fate is rather like Humpty Dumpty's, quite as tragic and quite as impossible to put right.'

1906 - American scholar and writer on mythology and comparative religion Joseph Campbell is born.

1906 - Piedmont bluesman Curley Weaver, known as the 'Georgia guitar wizard,' is born in Covington, Ga.

1911 - Following the publication of her first novel, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf suffers a nervous breakdown.

1911 - Playwright Tennessee Williams is born Thomas Lanier Williams, in Columbus, Mississippi. Author of The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), Night of the Iguana (1961), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

1917 - Bluesman Rufus Thomas, who had '70s hits with songs like Do the Funky Chicken, is born in Cayce, Miss.
1920 - F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, is published, selling 20,000 copies within a week. The author at 23, is the youngest novelist ever published by Scribner's. Fitzgerald's girlfriend, Zelda Sayre, had told him she wouldn't marry him until he had established himself as a writer. Eight days after this publication, Scott and Zelda were married.

1923 - Sarah Bernhardt, French actress and the greatest 'tragedienne' of her day, dies.

1930 - Poet Nunzio Gregory Corso is born in New York City. Left with foster parents when his 18-year-old immigrant mother returned to Italy, he grew up a juvenile delinquent. Convicted of theft at 17, he was introduced to literature while in prison and later met Allen Ginsberg and published his first volume of verse, The Vestal Lady on Brattle in 1955. Corso is considered one of only seven 'original' Beat writers.

1943 - Journalist Bob Woodward, best known for breaking the Watergate scandal, is born.

1946 - In a groundbreaking appearance at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium, Charlie Parker performs Lady Be Good.

1948 - Stephen Tyler, lead vocalist for Aerosmith, is born in New York City.

1960 - The TV special Welcome Home Elvis, hosted by Frank Sinatra, is recorded at Miami Beach, Fla.'s Fontainebleau Hotel. The King of Rock 'n' Roll had recently been discharged from the Army. Presley duets with Sinatra on Love Me Tender and Witchcraft and performs It's Nice to Go Traveling in his Army duds. It's the last time Elvis appears on TV for eight years.

1961 - Elvis Presley sets a British chart first: Number One with three straight releases: It's now or never, Are You Lonesome Tonight and Wooden Heart.

1964 - Chuck Berry records No Particular Place To Go in the Chess studios.

1965 - NME announces guitarist Eric Clapton's replacement in the Yardbirds is Jeff Beck. Clapton quit the group protesting the commerciality of tunes like For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul.

1966 - The Beatles pose with butchered dolls for the cover of Yesterday ... and Today. The subsequent outrage - we think it was a comment on Vietnam - makes this album a highly prized Beatles collectible.
 
1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono kick off their Amsterdam Hilton Bed-In.

1970 - Jim Morrison and Tom Baker appear in Federal Court in Phoenix, Arizona to face two counts of 'assaulting, threatening, intimidating and interfering with the performance of a flight crew' stemming from an incident of the previous November.

1971 - The Rolling Stones tape a live performance at the Marquee Club for television. Although the program later aired in Europe, British television has no interest in it whatsoever.

1973 - English playwright Noel Coward dies; he produced several films based on his own scripts, including In Which We Serve and Brief Encounter.

1978 - Professor Longhair records Hey Now Baby and other tunes in the New London theater, in London, England.

1982 - Groundbreaking ceremonies take place in Washington, D.C., for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1998 - It all goes horribly wrong for Three Dog Night as Chuck Negron sues his former bandmates.

Doors History Spotlight: Phoenix Trial

Jim Morrison and Tom Baker's defense attorney Craig Mehrens contests the charges, maintaining that the laws under which his clients are being prosecuted were established for the purpose of curtailing hijacking incidents. U.S. District Court Judge William P. Copple finds Jim Morrison guilty of the reduced charge of simple assault, which carries a maximum three-month imprisonment and a $300 fine. Tom Baker is acquitted when the prosecution fails to produce any verification that he had continued to harass the stewardess after being warned to refrain. Morrison's sentencing is set for April 6th.

The stewardesses testify that Jim and Tom Baker were intoxicated, obnoxious, and began shouting obscenities when refused additional liquor on the flight. One of the women further testifies that Jim Morrison repeatedly clasped her arm and shoulder until she finally had to summon the captain, who radioes ahead to the airport, requesting that authorities meet the plane. Her confusion over who had done what, and which of the men was Jim, eventually leads to his acquittal.

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