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June 9, 1891 Cole Porter is born in Peru, Indiana. His classic songs include "It's De-Lovely," "Anything Goes" and "Begin The Beguine."

October 15, 1890 New Orleans police chief David Hennessy is gunned down in the first widely publicized Mafia murder in the USA. The event is memorialized in the song "The Hennessy Murder."

June 15, 1889 John Philip Sousa leads the Marine Corps Band in a performance of "The Washington Post" at an awards ceremony held by the eponymous newspaper. The march, written especially for the occasion, becomes a worldwide sensation and earns Sousa the title of March King. More

April 11, 1889 Jazz musician Nick LaRocca, composer of the jazz classic "Tiger Rag," is born Dominic James LaRocca in New Orleans, Louisiana.

January 27, 1885 Jerome Kern, a storied composer of Broadway musicals, is born in New York City. His songs include "The Way You Look Tonight" (from Swing Time), "Ol' Man River" (from Show Boat) and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" (from Roberta).

January 20, 1885 Folk and blues musician Leadbelly is born Huddie William Ledbetter in Mooringsport, Louisiana.

January 31, 1882 Peter Dawson, famed Australian bass-baritone who made popular recordings of "Advance Australia Fair," "Waltzing Matilda," and "Song Of Australia," is born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Scottish parents Thomas and Alison Dawson.

October 7, 1879 Songwriter Joe Hill (Joseph Hillström) is born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund at Gävle, Sweden. His labor activism during the early 20th century in America influenced his most famous songs, including "The Preacher and the Slave" in 1911.

December 6, 1877 With his new invention, the phonograph, Thomas Edison records "Mary Had A Little Lamb," what was believed for over a century to be the first known recording of the human voice. In February 2008, an earlier recording of "Au Clair De La Lune" came to light.

June 26, 1870 At the National Theatre in Munich, Wagner's opera Die Walküre is performed for the first time, introducing the famous piece "The Ride Of The Valkyries."

November 24, 1868 Scott Joplin, Ragtime composer and pianist, is born in Northeast Texas.More

May 26, 1868 The Fenian terrorist, Michael Barrett, is hanged outside Newgate Prison in what is the last public execution in England. The crowd sings "Champagne Charlie" and "Rule, Britannia!"

December 30, 1865 The author, journalist and poet Rudyard Kipling is born in Bombay, Imperial India. The Joni Mitchell song "If" is based on his poem of the same name.

April 9, 1860 An anonymous vocalist sings "Au Clair De La Lune" to Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, who makes the first known and oldest surviving recording of the human voice.More

November 6, 1854 John Philip Sousa is born in Washington, DC. He serves as the director of the President's Own Marine Corps band from 1880 to 1892 before touring the world with his own Sousa Band and earns the title of March King thanks to famous compositions like "The Liberty Bell," "Semper Fidelis," "The Washington Post" and "Stars And Stripes Forever."

November 21, 1846 The literary character Sweeney Todd makes his first ever appearance, in a short story The String of Pearls: A Romance. The story later becomes a musical, complete with the song "The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd."

January 21, 1834 Peter Dodds McCormick, the man who is best known for the patriotic tune, "Advance Australia Fair", is born in Glasgow, Scotland. Though his date of birth is usually given as being on an unknown date in 1834, this is a little off. Twenty-two years later, he would emigrate to Sydney, Australia, where in 1878, he would compose his famous tune, as well as many other patriotic songs, most of which were Scottish tunes. A little side note, one of Peter's siblings, most likely a brother, was credited as having invented the life jacket.

December 15, 1831 A small advertisement in the London Times announces the publication of a patriotic song "dedicated to Earl Grey and his noble confederates in the cause of constitutional reform."

November 19, 1828 Austrian composer Franz Schubert dies in Vienna, Austria, at age 31. The cause is listed as typhoid fever, though some scholars believe it was syphilis.

May 7, 1824 Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is premiered in Vienna, Austria. Its final movement incorporates Friedrich Schiller "Ode to Joy" poem sung by four vocal soloists and a chorus. It represents the first time a major composer has used voices in a symphony.

November 20, 1820 Whaling ship The Essex is rammed and sunk by a whale in the South Pacific, later inspiring the song "Nantucket Sleighride."

December 24, 1818 A church choir in Austria introduces a new Christmas song for their Midnight Mass: "Stille Nacht!" better known as "Silent Night." More

December 29, 1812 Opus 96: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major by Ludwig van Beethoven is first performed.

May 8, 1810 Sir Walter Scott publishes the poem "The Lady of the Lake," which later provides the title for the song "Hail to the Chief."

April 27, 1810 Beethoven composes his "Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor," (better known as "Für Elise".) The piece is dedicated to Therese Malfatti, a friend and student of Beethoven's.

April 2, 1805 Hans Christian Andersen is born in Odense, Denmark. The author is later the subject of a song by Danny Kaye.

April 2, 1800 Opus 21: Symphony No. 1 in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven is first performed in Vienna for Baron Gottfried Van Swieten.

March 24, 1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completes his Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491. Beethoven hears the work in rehearsal and remarks in admiration to a colleague that "[we] shall never be able to do anything like that."

April 23, 1616 William Shakespeare dies at 52. His play Romeo and Juliet becomes an archetype for songs about love that ends in tragedy.