1982 Peter Gabriel launches the 3-day WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festival at the Royal Bath and West showground in Somerset, England, with acts including the Drummers Of Burundi, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Tian Jin dancers from China. It's a financial disaster but artistic success; Gabriel revives it the next year and the festival carries on, branching out to many countries over the next several years.
1980 Donna Summer marries Bruce Sudano, former member of Brooklyn Dreams, who appeared on her 1979 hit "Heaven Knows." Within the next two years, they welcome two daughters: Brooklyn and Amanda Sudano.
1977 Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron" hits #1 in the US. The song was first recorded by the girl group The Crystals in 1963. Cassidy's version changes the line "Someboy told me that his name was Bill" to "Someboy told me that her name was Jill."
1977 Barry Manilow's Barry Manilow Live hits #1 in America.
1976 After six years, Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina decide to split up their partnership, which had three big hits in "Thinking Of You," "My Music," and "Your Mama Don't Dance."
1976 Driven by discord after Gregg Allman testified against the band's road manager, The Allman Brothers announce their breakup. Gregg records and album with his wife, Cher, and Dickey Betts forms Great Southern. The band reunites in 1978.
1972 Smokey Robinson performs his final show with The Miracles at the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Washington, DC. At the end of the show, Smokey introduces his replacement, 20-year-old Billy Griffin.
1971 Live lead singer Ed Kowalczyk is born in York, Pennsylvania.
1966 Tommy James and the Shondells' "Hanky Panky" hits #1 for the first of two weeks.
1964 Country singer Connie Smith records her debut single, "Once A Day," at RCA's Studio B in Nashville.
1962 The Beach Boys sign to Capitol Records, which has already released the group's single "Surfin' Safari."
1959 The Coasters record "Poison Ivy."
1955 Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on the national charts as "Baby, Let's Play House" enters the Cash Box country charts at #15.
1952 Stewart Copeland is born in Alexandria, Virginia. He spends his youth in Lebanon and then England. After moving back to the States to attend college, he returns to the UK to play drums for Curved Air and then The Police.
1944 Thomas Boggs (drummer for The Box Tops) is born in Wynne, Arkansas, but is raised mostly in Memphis, Tennessee.
"Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO hits #1 after first appearing on the Hot 100 on February 12 at #78. Thanks to a captivating video, the song starts the "shufflin'" dance craze and spends a staggering 68 weeks on the chart (six at #1), which is longer than any other chart-topper.
Read more2022 Two songs from the '80s land in the US Top 40: "Master Of Puppets" by Metallica (#40) and "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush (#4). Both songs were revived by season 4 of Stranger Things, where they're used in battle against the evil Vecna.
2008 Billy Joel bids goodbye to Flushing, New York's iconic Shea Stadium with the first of two star-studded concerts. Sadly, this is the highlight of the Mets' season.
1996 The Sultan of Brunei, the world's richest man, marks his 50th birthday with a Michael Jackson concert on the Borneo Island. Jackson earns about $15 million for the performance, which is free to the 60,000 in attendance.
1981 Harry Chapin dies in a car crash at age 38.
1967 Arlo Guthrie debuts "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. The song runs 18 minutes long and tells a true (but greatly exaggerated) story about how he was arrested one Thanksgiving morning for illegal dumping. The ticket later made him ineligible for the draft, keeping him out of the Vietnam War. Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, and Tom Paxton also play the festival this day.
1966 A supergroup is born as former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton teams up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker of the Graham Bond Organization to form Cream. They break up just three years later, but leave a lasting impact that earns them induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
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