1961 Johnny Burnette is rushed to Hollywood's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital to undergo an emergency appendectomy. The medical crisis forces Burnette, then on the charts with "You're Sixteen," to cancel $10,000 worth of domestic engagements and postpone a European tour.
1959 A day after the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, the Winter Dance Party tour continues in Sioux City, Iowa, with Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Jimmy Clanton as the new headliners and Waylon Jennings singing Holly's songs.
1956 Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" reaches its US chart peak of #17, giving him his first hit. Pat Boone's version of the song outcharts him, making #12 two weeks later.
1954 The Drifters record "Bells Of Saint Mary's," "White Christmas," "Honey Love," and "What'cha Gonna Do."
1952 Jerry Shirley (drummer for Humble Pie) is born in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, England.
1951 Phil Ehart (drummer for Kansas) is born in Coffeyville, Kansas.
1948 Vincent Furnier, who will become better known as Alice Cooper, is born in Detroit.
1944 Florence LaRue (of The 5th Dimension) is born in Plainfield, New Jersey, but grows up in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
1943 Frank Sinatra cameos in the movie Reveille with Beverly, singing "Night And Day."
1941 John Steel (original drummer for The Animals) is born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England.
1939 Frank Sinatra marries Nancy Barbato at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Jersey City. They welcome three children - Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina - before divorcing in 1951.
1937 Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra records "A Study in Brown."
1924 Louis Armstrong marries Lillian Hardin, a pianist with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, of which he is also a member. Lil encourages her husband's rising career, but the marriage falls apart, ending in a 1938 divorce.
Prince wows at the Super Bowl halftime show, closing with an otherworldly rendition of "Purple Rain" in the rain.
Read more2012 About 100 dancers participate in a Soul Train-style line dance in Times Square as a tribute to the recently deceased founder of the show, Don Cornelius.
2012 Adele becomes the first female British artist to have three #1 songs from the same album top the Billboard Hot 100 chart when "Set Fire to the Rain" hits the top spot, following "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You" from the album 21.
2010 A judge rules that the flute riff of the Men at Work song "Down Under" plagiarizes another Australian classic: the 1932 song "Kookaburra."More
1998 Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford comes out as gay in an interview with MTV. "I feel this is the moment to discuss it," he says. "A lot of homophobia still exists in the music world."
1983 Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters dies at age 32 of complications from anorexia.
1980 The Ramones release their fifth album, End of the Century, produced by Phil Spector. Dee Dee Ramone claims Spector pulled a gun on him during the sessions.More
1978 The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," which features in the opening scene of Saturday Night Fever, hits #1 in the US and stays there for four weeks.
1977 Fleetwood Mac release their landmark album Rumours. The LP sets a record for most weeks at #1 with 31, and becomes one of the best-selling albums of all time, with worldwide sales estimated at about 40 million.More
1974 The Stooges play a bar in Wayne, Michigan, where a biker gang called The Scorpions is initiating a new member by having him hurl eggs at lead singer Iggy Pop, who responds by going into the crowd to fight him.More
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