Pick a Day

Music History Events: Openings and Unveilings

October 18, 1979 After a series of renovations, New York's legendary venue Radio City Music Hall re-opens with a showing of its first film, Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

February 12, 1974 The legendary rock club The Bottom Line opens in Greenwich Village, New York City.

December 10, 1973 The nightclub CBGB opens on Manhattan's Lower East Side. A former flophouse, it becomes ground zero for East Coast punk rock, with Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television and Blondie often performing there.

June 1, 1971 The two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born is opened to the public as a tourist attraction.

September 26, 1969 Legendary promoter Bill Graham opens the Fillmore West, a West Coast version of his popular New York "rock ballroom," in San Francisco.

August 21, 1969 James Brown opens the first two of his Gold Platter restaurants in Macon, Georgia. The soul food eateries, with dishes served on replica gold records, are envisioned as a franchise opportunity for black owners. The enterprise fails a short time later.

January 22, 1968 Apple Corps (home of the boutique and the label) opens its offices at 5 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, London.

November 17, 1967 Davy Jones of The Monkees opens a boutique called Zilch I, named after a Monkees song, in New York's Greenwich Village.

December 23, 1966 London's premiere psychedelic hangout, the UFO club, opens on Tottenham Court Road, with Pink Floyd as the house band.

December 17, 1965 Judy Garland, with opening act The Supremes, plays the first concert in the Houston Astrodome.

January 11, 1964 The Whisky-a-Go-Go opens at Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California, and quickly becomes a vital music venue. Some of the early acts to play the Whiskey include The Animals, The Doors and Otis Redding.

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

January 16, 1957 The Cavern Club, where The Beatles cut their teeth, opens in Liverpool, England.

December 27, 1932 With 6,200 seats and a stage spanning 10,000 square feet, the world's largest indoor theater of the time, Radio City Music Hall, opens in New York City with a massive six-hour show.

November 12, 1931 Abbey Road Studios opens for business at 3 Abbey Road, St. John's Wood, London. The Beatles do most of their recording there and name their 1969 album Abbey Road, with a famous photo of the band traversing the crosswalk outside the studio.

January 2, 1843 The opera Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman) by Richard Wagner premieres in Dresden.

February 26, 2022 The Avicii Experience museum opens in Stockholm with interactive and real-life exhibits dedicated to the DJ/producer, who died in 2018 at 28.

September 29, 2021 In downtown Detroit, Eminem opens the restaurant Mom's Spaghetti, named after a line in his song "Lose Yourself." The first fans in line are served by Slim Shady himself.

March 15, 2019 The New York Public Library opens the Lou Reed Archive, with photos, recordings and other media documenting his career.More

October 9, 2018 Mondo Scripto, the first-ever lyrics and drawing exhibition by Bob Dylan, opens at the Halcyon Gallery in London.

September 14, 2014 A life-size statue of Amy Winehouse is unveiled in Camden Town, London to honor the singer.

September 5, 2014 Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton open a bed and breakfast called The Ladysmith in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. It can be seen in Blake's video for "Sangria."

June 22, 2012 The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre opens in Melbourne. Newton-John, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, started raising funds to develop the project in 2003.

April 5, 2012 The Philip Lynott Exhibition opens at the 02 in London, celebrating the legacy of the Thin Lizzy frontman.

October 21, 2010 In the Five Points district of Columbia, South Carolina, a sculpture in unveiled honoring Hootie & the Blowfish, who formed when they were students at the nearby University of South Carolina.

July 1, 2006 The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts opens on the grounds of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York. The brainchild of Alan Gerry, who sold his company, Cablevision Industries, to Time Warner for $2.8 billion, the Center includes a performance venue, and later, a museum.

July 28, 2001 The American Airlines Center in Dallas - new home to the Mavericks (NBA) and Stars (NHL) - opens with a concert by The Eagles, with good seats reselling for about $1,500.

July 14, 1995 At what was previously a forsaken patch of land to the north of Hartford, Connecticut, Michael Bolton plays the grand opening concert at the Meadows Music Theater. Bolton, who grew up in New Haven, is good friends with the venue's promoter Jim Koplik. 90 degree heat stifles the ceremony a bit, as soon-to-be disgraced governor John Rowland has to take off his tuxedo coat when greeting Bolton onstage.

August 15, 1960 The 12,000-seat Cobo Arena opens in Detroit. It's home to the NBA's Pistons, but also a great place to hear music. Kiss (Alive!), J. Geils Band (Blow Your Face Out) and Bob Seger (Live Bullet) all record live albums there.

April 6, 1956 The Capitol Tower, new home of Capitol Records, opens on the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles. The 13-story building, which resembles a stack of records, houses three new recording studios where Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Linda Ronstadt, and many other stars will lay down tracks. The building becomes an LA landmark, with the red light at the top flashing "HOLLYWOOD" in Morse Code.