Pick a Day

Bob Dylan, who refused an invitation to the original 1969 festival, performs on the last day of Woodstock '94, singing "It Ain't Me Babe," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Masters Of War," "Just Like A Woman," and "Highway 61 Revisited" on the main North Stage. Over on the South Stage, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wallops fistfuls of mud at fans and incites an all-out mudfight. Bassist Mike Dirnt gets his front teeth knocked out by a security guard in the chaos.

Bob Dylan begins taping his episode of MTV Unplugged at New York's Sony Studios.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, with opening ceremony performances by Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Little Richard, Al Green, The Allman Brothers Band, Booker T. & the MG's, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, The Pretenders, John Fogerty, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, George Clinton, The Kinks, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, The Animals' Eric Burdon, and Boz Scaggs.

Frank Sinatra's all-star 80th birthday tribute is held in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, featuring Bob Dylan performing "Restless Farewell" (at the request of Sinatra; Dylan wanted to perform Sinatra's "That's Life") and Paula Abdul singing "Luck Be A Lady." Afterwards, Dylan and fellow performer Bruce Springsteen, along with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, are invited back to the crooner's home. (Sinatra's actual birthday isn't until December 12th.)

Hootie & the Blowfish settle out of court with Bob Dylan, who sees their lifting of lyrics from "Tangled Up In Blue" on their hit "Only Want To Be With You" as more plagiarism than tribute.

Little Richard, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are among the performers honoring Frank Sinatra on the TV special Sinatra: 80 Years My Way.

For the first time, Bob Dylan licenses one of his songs for commercial use, in this case, "The Times They Are A Changin'" to the Bank of Montreal.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm publish an article called "Nitric Oxide And Inflammation: The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind" in the journal Nature Medicine. The article deals with the detection of mucosal inflammation, and while we can't speak to its medical efficacy, it does reveal a trend of biomedical researchers using Bob Dylan song titles and lyrics in their articles. The Swedish scientists had a friendly bet going to see how many Dylan references they could inject into their published work; a later study reveals hundreds of medical articles that had borrowed from Dylan, with the most popular song being "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

Bob Dylan plays "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" for Pope John Paul II and an audience of 300,000 at the World Eucharist Congress in Bologna, Italy. For the 77-year-old Pope, it's a chance to connect with young people, and the pontiff does so by invoking Dylan's song "Blowin' In The Wind" during his sermon. Dylan's invite is not without controversy, as the future Pope Benedict fears the "rock prophet" and his music are at odds with the Roman Catholic faith.More

Strange things are afoot at the Grammy Awards. A shirtless dude with "Soy Bomb" written on his chest intrudes on Bob Dylan's performance, and when Shawn Colvin wins Song Of The Year (for "Sunny Came Home"), Ol' Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan rushes the stage, commandeering the microphone and talking about how his group should have won the Best Rap Album award over Puff Daddy because "Wu-Tang is for the children."More

Bob Dylan wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Things Have Changed" from the movie Wonder Boys.

Bob Dylan is turned away by security guards at his concert at the Jackson County Exposition Center in Oregon because he doesn't have a credential. The guards are under orders from Dylan's security director not to let anyone through without a pass. "He said no exceptions," explained the venue manager.

The string band Old Crow Medicine Show release "Wagon Wheel," a song based on a Bob Dylan outtake from 1973 called "Rock Me Mama." The song becomes a bluegrass standard, most famously recorded by Darius Rucker, whose 2013 version is a #1 Country hit.

A collection of poems written by Bob Dylan in 1959 and 1960 when he was a student at the University of Minnesota sells for $78,000 at auction. The poems are the first known time he used the name Bob Dylan - he was born Robert Zimmerman.

Bob Dylan's first hosted radio show airs on XM Satellite Radio, with the legend playing favorite tracks by Prince, Wilco, Blur, LL Cool J, and Billy Bragg, among others.

65-year-old Bob Dylan becomes the oldest person to top Billboard's albums chart when Modern Times goes to #1.

The ill-fated Bob Dylan musical tribute The Times They Are A-Changin' closes on Broadway after a scant 28 showings.

The Bob Dylan "biographical" movie, I'm Not There: Suppositions On A Film Concerning Dylan, premieres at the Venice (Italy) Film Festival. The Todd Haynes-directed film features six actors representing different aspects or eras of Dylan's life and music, including Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. By the time the movie gets a wider release later in 2007, it's title has been shortened to I'm Not There.

Bob Dylan gets an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture." He's the first rock musician to win the award.

Bob Dylan's 33rd album, Together Through Life, debuts at #1 in the US and the UK. Eight days shy of his 68th birthday, Dylan again becomes the oldest artist to ever top the US tally. He takes over the record from Neil Diamond, who was 67 years, 4 months old when his album Home Before Dark hit #1 in May 2008.

Bob Dylan receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to a United States civilian citizen, from US President Barack Obama. Dylan is only the 29th musician to receive the award; previous recipients include Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Irving Berlin.

After its authenticity is verified on the PBS series History Detectives, the Fender Stratocaster that Bob Dylan played in his historic performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 is purchased for an astounding $965,000. It had spent the previous 48 years with the family of Dylan's personal pilot, who received no reply when he told Dylan to retrieve the gear he left behind.

The first presidential playlists are released. Barack Obama's selections include tracks by Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and John Legend.More

Bob Dylan is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "For having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Previous winners in this category include William Golding, John Steinbeck and William Faulkner. He's the first American to win since Toni Morrison in 1993.

The Rolling Stones play the first night of the Desert Trip festival, which also features Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who. The six-day (split over two weekends) event rakes in $160 million, making it the highest-earning music festival ever.More

Bob Dylan accepts the Nobel Prize in Literature. He doesn't attend the ceremony, but sends an insightful speech that is read by the US ambassador to Sweden.More

The EP Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined is released, with six classic songs sung from the perspective of same-sex couples. Bob Dylan does "She's Funny That Way" as "He's Funny That Way," and St. Vincent turns "Then He Kissed Me" into "Then She Kissed Me."More

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

Bob Dylan, 78, lands his first #1 on a Billboard chart when "Murder Most Foul" tops the Rock Digital Song Sales tally. The epic song, which is nearly 17 minutes long, finds Dylan reflecting on John F. Kennedy's assassination and its impact on history.

At 79, Bob Dylan becomes the oldest artist to top the UK albums chart with an album of original songs when Rough And Rowdy Ways hits the top spot.