1869 - Hector Berlioz, French Romantic composer (Symphonie Fantastique), dies at 65.


1923 - A poll in Women’s Weekly magazine says that American men are favored as the second choice of French women.


1935 - Thomas Wolfe's second novel, Of Time and the River, is published to great acclaim by Scribner's.


1947 - Michael Allsup, guitarist for Three Dog Night, is born.


1950 - The Soviet Union announces it is in possession of the atomic bomb.








1958 - Nobel-Prize winning author William Faulkner warns the American public in a speech at Princeton University that American schools are fast becoming "baby-sitting organizations."









1959 - The Marx Brothers, Groucho, Chico and Harpo, make their final TV appearance together. 








1965 - The United States lands about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam.

1968 - Bill Graham, owner of San Francisco's legendary rock ballroom the Fillmore, opens the Fillmore East in the abandoned Village Theater on Second Avenue and Sixth Street in New York City. The opening night bill features Albert King, Tim Buckley and Big Brother and the Holding Company.





1969 - Sly and the Family Stone are starting their fourth (and final) week at number one on the pop music charts with Everyday People. When presented with the coveted gold record for this achievement, Sly rips it out of its case, throws it on the record player and hears People by Barbra Streisand, at which point he is heard to utter a few words which will not be reprinted here.








1971 - Radio Hanoi plays Jimi Hendrix's interpretation of The Star-Spangled Banner to the troops in Vietnam after receiving the tape from activist Abbie Hoffman.









1971 - John Lennon records Power to the People for inclusion on his Plastic Ono Band album.










1973 - Grateful Dead keyboardist and founding member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan dies of a stomach hemorrhage in Madera, California at 27. While the rest of the band was experimenting with hallucinogens, Pigpen was drinking a bottle of whiskey each day, the effects of which contributed to his death.






1979 - In one of the first public acknowledgements of the hard times beginning to hit the record industry Rolling Stone magazine reports that due to the "skyrocketing costs of producing, promoting and supporting a new album, now put at between $350,000 and $500,000, labels will start limiting their new releases."






1993 - Singer/bandleader Billy Eckstine dies in Pittsburgh following a stroke at age 78. Among the musicians who played in his band were Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis.






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