Pick a Day

Bob Dylan is born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota. He moves to New York City in 1961, where he becomes the breakout star of the Greenwich Village folk scene, known for intricate, incisive, and often mysterious lyrics that are examined in great detail throughout his career. We're still trying to make sense of "Desolation Row."

Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) has his bar mitzvah in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Robert Zimmerman graduates from Hibbing High School in Minnesota. He moves on to the University of Minnesota, but soon leaves for New York City to become the full-time folk singer, Bob Dylan.

Five days after arriving in New York from Minnesota, Bob Dylan meets his ailing folk hero, Woody Guthrie, tracking him down in East Orange, New Jersey. Dylan pays tribute with "Song To Woody," which appears on his first album the following year.More

Bob Dylan arrives in New York after dropping out of the University of Minnesota. He immediately gets to work, playing a show at the club Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.

Bob Dylan makes his first recordings after moving from Minnesota to New York City, at the home of friends Sid and Bob Gleason in East Orange, New Jersey. They include versions of "San Francisco Bay Blues" and "Jesus Met The Woman At The Well."

Bob Dylan makes his professional recording debut when he plays harmonica on the Harry Belafonte recording of "Midnight Special." Dylan makes $50 for the session.

Bob Dylan plays for the first time at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village, opening for John Lee Hooker and performing a new song entitled "Blowin' In The Wind."

Bob Dylan records six more songs for his debut album: "Man Of Constant Sorrow," "Pretty Peggy-O," "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," "Gospel Plow," "Highway 51," and "Freight Train Blues."

Bob Dylan records seven songs for his self-titled debut album: "You're No Good," "Fixin' To Die," "House Of The Risin' Sun," "Talkin' New York," "Song To Woody," "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," and "In My Time of Dyin'."

Bob Dylan releases his self-titled debut album. It doesn't chart in America, but sets the stage for his breakthrough a year later: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan, not yet famous, records "Blowin' In The Wind" at Columbia Records' studios in New York City, but doesn't release it until May 27, 1963, when it appears on his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. It eventually becomes one of Dylan's most famous songs, but the first version most listeners hear is the hit cover by Peter, Paul and Mary, which goes to #2 in the US in August 1963.

Bob Dylan makes his name change official, legally saying adieu to his birth name, Robert Zimmerman.

Bob Dylan records "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."

Bob Dylan records "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" in Studio A at Columbia Recording Studios.

Bob Dylan releases his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

The very first Monterey Folk Festival begins at the Monterey Fairgrounds in California. Over the weekend, Bob Dylan makes his first West Coast performance, Jerry Garcia's band wins an amateur competition, and Janis Joplin draws a crowd on the second stage.More

A Bob Dylan song charts for the first time when Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of "Blowin' In The Wind" enters the Hot 100 at #86. In August, it climbs to #2, introducing many listeners to Dylan's music.

At the March On Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his "I have a dream" speech, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta and Mahalia Jackson sing for equal rights.More

The Beatles smoke pot for the first time, supplied by Bob Dylan, who joins the band after one of their concerts in New York state. Dylan is surprised they haven't tried it before, as he thought they sang "I get high" in their song "I Want To Hold Your Hand," when it was really "I can't hide."

Bob Dylan releases his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home.

Bob Dylan begins the tour immortalized in the documentary Don't Look Back, performing at the City Hall in Sheffield, England.

Bob Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, goes to #1 in the UK. It's the first time an artist other than The Beatles or The Rolling Stones has topped the chart since the Summer Holiday soundtrack on April 28, 1963.

D.A. Pennebaker films Bob Dylan in one of the earliest music videos ever shot, the famous "flashcard" clip for "Subterranean Homesick Blues."More

At Columbia Studios in New York City, Bob Dylan finishes recording "Like A Rolling Stone," a song about a socialite who falls from grace. The Hammond organ comes courtesy of Al Kooper, who later forms Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Dylan plugs in! At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan plays an electric set for the first time, horrifying folkies everywhere.More

Bob Dylan releases "Like A Rolling Stone." At 6:13, it's twice as long as the average pop song, but it nonetheless becomes Dylan's first big hit and one of his most popular songs.

Bob Dylan marries his first wife, Sara Lownds, in Nassau County, New York; as she is already pregnant with his first child, the marriage is kept a secret for the next two months. The couple would divorce in 1977.

Bob Dylan, who had recently "gone electric" and added rock and roll instruments to his folk music, appears at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. Just before he begins a version of his latest hit, "Like A Rolling Stone," a member of the audience, a folk purist angry at the move to rock, shouts out, "Judas!" Dylan responds with, "I don't believe you," adding, "You're a liar!" He then proceeds to tell the band to play the song "f--king loud."

Bob Dylan releases the "thin, wild mercury" sound of Blonde on Blonde, rock's first double album. Minds are blown.More