Pick a Day

Music History Events: Awards and Honors

April 9, 1962 Henry Mancini wins the Best Original Song Academy Award for "Moon River" from Breakfast At Tiffany's.

May 31, 1961 Chuck Berry opens the Berryland amusement park, complete with guitar-shaped swimming pool, in Wentzville, Missouri, outside of St. Louis.

April 13, 1961 At the third annual Grammy Awards, the comedy album The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart wins Album Of The Year, beating out albums by Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Nat King Cole. The Grammys, which have yet to introduce a rock category, choose another comedy album for the award two years later: The First Family by Vaughn Meader.

April 12, 1961 Ray Charles is the big winner at the third annual Grammy Awards, winning four trophies, including the award for Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."

April 4, 1961 Former teen idol Fabian graduates from Philadelphia's South Side High.

June 6, 1960 The RIAA gives Bing Crosby a special platinum record to signify career sales of 200 million records, many of them "White Christmas."

July 8, 1958 The RIAA gives its first ever Gold album to the Oklahoma! soundtrack for $1 million in sales. The Gold standard for albums is changed in 1975 to reflect sales of over 500,000.

October 4, 1957 Elvis Presley comes in second to Pat Boone in the NME music poll.

March 27, 1957 "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera)" from the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

December 5, 1955 The BMI Annual Awards in New York City score big for R&B, with rhythm and blues songs winning a record eleven awards.

November 12, 1955 Fats Domino is named the favorite Rhythm & Blues artist in Billboard's annual DJ's Poll.

November 12, 1955 Chuck Berry is named the most promising Rhythm & Blues artist in Billboard's annual DJ's Poll.

July 15, 1952 Eight-year-old prodigy Gladys Knight appears on the TV show Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, a precursor to shows like Star Search and American Idol. She wins the top prize of $2,000 for her performance of Nat King Cole's "Too Young."

December 23, 1947 Three scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey demonstrate the transistor, which leads to the invention of small, portable "transistor" radios. The scientists win the 1956 Nobel Prize for their work.

June 12, 2022 Jennifer Hudson goes EGOT with a Tony win for A Strange Loop. She's a producer on the show, which takes the award for Best New Musical. Hudson got her Oscar in 2007 (Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls), her Grammy in 2008 (Best R&B Album), and her Emmy in 2021 (Interactive Achievement for work on Baba Yaga).

December 6, 2021 Drake, a longtime critic of the Grammy Awards, turns down his two nominations, joining The Weeknd in boycotting the awards. Drake feels he's being pigeonholed into hip-hop categories when he's really a pop artist; The Weeknd has beef because he wasn't nominated the previous year for his album After Hours or song "Blinding Lights."

November 8, 2021 Missy Elliott gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She shouts out "my female MCs in hip-hop," including her forebears Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Monie Love, Sha-Rock, Angie Stone, Roxanne Shanté, and Yo-Yo.

October 30, 2021 Carole King, Tina Turner, Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Todd Rundgren, the Go-Go's and Foo Fighters are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

June 24, 2021 A section of Van Arsdale Place in Teaneck, New Jersey, is renamed The Isley Brothers Way in honor of The Isley Brothers, who formed there and named their record label, T-Neck, after the township.

May 23, 2021 Drake wins Artist of the Decade at the Billboard Music Awards.

March 14, 2021 At the Grammy Awards, Taylor Swift wins Album Of The Year for Folklore and Beyoncé takes four awards, making her the most-awarded woman in Grammy history, her 28 trophies surpassing Alison Krauss' 27.

November 22, 2020 For the third consecutive year, Taylor Swift wins Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. She accepts from a Nashville studio where she's re-recording her first six albums, which have been acquired by a holding company.

November 7, 2020 The Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., and T. Rex enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Because of coronavirus, the ceremony is virtual and there are no performances.

August 30, 2020 Lady Gaga is the big winner at MTV Video Music Awards, taking Artist of the Year, Song of the Year (her Ariana Grande collaboration "Rain On Me") and the Tricon Award, formerly the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. With the coronavirus lockdown still in place, two new categories are awarded: Best Music Video From Home ("Stuck with U" by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber) and Best Quarantine Performance (CNCO: Unplugged at Home).

June 30, 2020 John Prine, who grew up near Chicago, is named the first honorary poet laureate of Illinois. Prine died of coronavirus three months earlier.

March 4, 2020 At 58, Garth Brooks becomes the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Past recipients of the award include Gloria & Emilio Estefan, Tony Bennett, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel, Carole King, and Paul McCartney, among others.

May 4, 2019 A section of Staten Island is renamed "Wu-Tang Clan District" in honor of the group.More

February 10, 2019 At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Leon Bridges and PJ Morton tie for Best Traditional R&B Performance when Bridges' "Bet Ain't Worth The Hand" and Morton's cover of the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" both win the title. It's the first Grammy win for both artists.

November 19, 2018 Snoop Dogg gets a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. In his speech, he thanks himself, inspiring the title track to his next album, I Wanna Thank Me.

August 27, 2018 Weird Al Yankovic receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the ceremony, he tells the crowd, "My name is gonna be walked on, spit on, and let's face it ... urinated on for generations to come. That's a legacy, my friends."