2024: Chappell Roan makes her Saturday Night Live debut. The breakout pop star performed “Pink Pony Club” and premiered a new country song, “The Giver,” which she released later that month.
2023: The Beatles release “Now and Then,” billed as their final song. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr finished it from an old John Lennon demo, using machine learning to separate his voice from the piano. It became the band's 18th number one in the UK and later won a Grammy.
2019: Lewis Capaldi's “Someone You Loved” reaches number one in America. The ballad made him the first Scottish solo singer to top the Hot 100 since Sheena Easton in 1981.
2018: The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody opens in theaters. Rami Malek played Freddie Mercury and won the Oscar for Best Actor, one of four Academy Awards the film collected.
2016: Beyoncé joins the Dixie Chicks at the CMA Awards. They performed “Daddy Lessons” from her album Lemonade on the show's 50th anniversary broadcast. Eight years later her “Texas Hold 'Em” became the first country chart topper by a Black woman.
2015: Country singer Tommy Overstreet dies. He had a string of 1970s country hits, including “Gwen (Congratulations)” and “Ann (Don't Go Runnin').”
2014: Clarinetist Acker Bilk dies at 85. His 1962 instrumental “Stranger on the Shore” was the first recording by a British artist to reach number one on the American Hot 100.
1996: Singer Eva Cassidy dies of cancer at 33. She was little known outside Washington, D.C., during her life, but her covers of “Over the Rainbow” and “Fields of Gold” found a huge audience afterward, and the collection Songbird hit number one in the UK in 2001.
1992: Neil Young releases Harvest Moon. Often seen as a sequel to his 1972 classic Harvest, it brought back many of the same players and became one of his best-selling albums in years.
1987: George Harrison releases Cloud Nine. Co-produced with Jeff Lynne, it included the number one hit “Got My Mind Set On You” and was the last solo studio album he released in his lifetime.
1985: Stevie Wonder's “Part-Time Lover” hits number one. It topped the Hot 100 more than 22 years after his first chart topper, “Fingertips,” in 1963.
1978: The Police release their debut album, Outlandos d'Amour. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland had considered calling it “Police Brutality.” It included “Roxanne” and “Can't Stand Losing You.”
1974: George Harrison launches the first solo tour by a former Beatle. The Dark Horse tour opened in Vancouver with Ravi Shankar sharing the bill and Billy Preston in the band.
1968: José Feliciano's “The Star-Spangled Banner” enters the Hot 100. His slow, acoustic take, first heard at the World Series in Detroit, debuted at number 89 and peaked at number 50, the first version of the national anthem to make the chart.
1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh goes on the air as America's first licensed commercial radio station. The station's first broadcast carried the results of the Harding and Cox presidential election.
Born on This Day
1975: Chris Walla, American guitarist and producer (Death Cab for Cutie) Turns 51. Played guitar and produced the band's records through hits like “I Will Follow You into the Dark.”
1974: Nelly, American rapper Turns 52. The St. Louis star behind “Hot in Herre,” “Ride wit Me” and “Dilemma” with Kelly Rowland.
1974: Prodigy, American rapper (Mobb Deep) Half of the New York duo known for “Shook Ones (Part II)”; he died in 2017.
1971: John Hampson, American singer and guitarist (Nine Days) Turns 55. Sang lead on the 2000 hit “Absolutely (Story of a Girl).”
1969: Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, American bassist (Korn) Turns 57. A founding member of the nu metal band behind “Freak on a Leash.”
1963: Bobby Dall, American bassist (Poison) Turns 63. Played on the band's hits “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and “Talk Dirty to Me.”
1962: Ron McGovney, American bassist (Metallica) Turns 64. The band's original bass player in its early Los Angeles days.
1961: k.d. lang, Canadian singer and songwriter Turns 65. Best known for “Constant Craving” and her celebrated cover of “Hallelujah.”
1957: Carter Beauford, American drummer (Dave Matthews Band) Turns 69. A founding member whose drumming drives songs like “Ants Marching” and “Crash Into Me.”
1952: Maxine Nightingale, English singer Turns 74. Scored a 1976 hit with “Right Back Where We Started From.”
1947: Dave Pegg, English bassist (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention) Turns 79. Spent years in both bands and anchored Jethro Tull through the 1980s.
1945: J.D. Souther, American singer and songwriter Co-wrote Eagles classics like “Best of My Love” and “New Kid in Town” and had his own hit with “You're Only Lonely”; he died in 2024.
1944: Keith Emerson, English keyboardist (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) The flamboyant keyboard star of the 1970s prog rock trio behind “Lucky Man”; he died in 2016.
1938: Jay Black, American singer (Jay and the Americans) Lead voice on 1960s hits “Cara Mia” and “This Magic Moment.”
1937: Earl “Speedoo” Carroll, American singer (The Cadillacs, The Coasters) The 1955 doo wop hit “Speedoo” was named after him; he later sang with the Coasters and died in 2012.
1931: Phil Woods, American jazz saxophonist A bebop great whose alto sax solo is heard on Billy Joel's “Just the Way You Are”; he died in 2015.
1926: Charlie Walker, American country singer and DJ Best known for the 1959 country hit “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down”; he died in 2008.
1924: Rudy Van Gelder, American recording engineer Recorded hundreds of classic jazz albums for Blue Note and other labels; he died in 2016.
1908: Bunny Berigan, American jazz trumpeter A swing era star known for his 1937 recording of “I Can't Get Started”; he died in 1942.
