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| The 1300's | The Renaissance encouraged the pursuit of folk music by the literate classes. |
| The 1400's | Broadside song sheets are among the earliest printed matter. |
| 1499 | Oxford University in England began offering degrees in music. |
| The 1500's | The guitarra latina plucked stringed instrument was originated in Spain. |
| The 1500's | The madrigal (poetry set to music) was popular. |
| 1587 | The Rose Theatre was built in London, England. |
| 1597 | The first opera, "Dafne" was performed in Florence, Italy. |
| 1610 | The first opera to be heard outside of Italy was "Andromeda" by Girolamo Giacobi. It was produced in Salzburg in 1618. |
| 1613 | The first Globe Theatre in London, England was destroyed by a fire. |
| 1632 | The first coffee shop opened in London, England. |
| May 9, 1662 | Diarist Samuel Pepys witnessed the very first Punch & Judy Show at Covent Garden in London, England. |
| 1689 | Composer Henry Purcell produced the first English opera, "Dido & Aeneas." |
| Dec. 26, 1717 | The first pantomime, "Harlequin Executed" debuted at Lincoln's Inn Field's Theatre, London, England. |
| 1732 | Covent Garden also known as The Royal Opera House was built in London, England by actor/theatre manager John Rich. |
| 1736 | The first American fiddling contest was held in Hanover County, Virginia. |
| 1742 | George Frederick Handel composed "Messiah," premiering it in Dublin, Ireland. |
| Dec. 1, 1768 | The Royal Academy Of Arts was founded in London, England. |
| 1778 | La Scala Opera House was opened in Milan, Italy on the site of the church of Sta Maria dela Scala. Badly damaged during World War II, it was reopened in 1948. |
| 1825 | The Bolshoi Theatre, a venue featuring opera and ballet opened in Moscow, Russia. |
| 1830 | The first commercial five string banjo was invented by Joel Sweeney, a Virginian minstrel. |
| 1842 | The Franklin Theater advertised itself as the first variety house in New York City. |
| 1850 | Joseph Paxton built The Crystal Palace in London, England. |
| 1852 | Charles Morton, "The Father Of The Halls" opened the first major British music hall in Lambeth, just south of The Thames River. |
| 1857 | Leon Scott invented his "phonoautograph" which could record the movements of a vibrating body on the smoked surface of its rotating cylinder. |
| 1863 | Shortly before his death, Stephen Foster composed his last song, "Beautiful Dreamer." |
| Dec. 18, 1865 | The United States officially abolishes slavery. |
| Sept. 12, 1866 | The extravaganza, "The Black Crook," which opened at Niblo's Garden in New York City signaled the true birth of the American musical theatre. It was 5 hours in duration. |
| March 29, 1871 | The Royal Albert Hall was opened in London, England by Queen Victoria. |
| Dec. 6, 1877 | The first sound recording on a machine, "Mary Had A Little Lamb," was made by Thomas Edison. |
| Dec. 24, 1877 | Thomas Edison's invention, the phonograph was patented. |
| Jan., 1878 | The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company was formed. |
| Nov. 25, 1878 | Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta, "H.M.S. Pinafore" made its American debut in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| 1878 | The first Canadian National Exhibition debuted. |
| 1887 | German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves. |
| 1880 | "The Greatest Show On Earth" was born when P. T. Barnum and James Bailey's circuses merged. |
| 1881 | Rodolphe Salis opened "Le Chat Noir," Paris' first true cabaret. |
| 1884 | Emile Berliner made a cylinder of "The Lord's Prayer." |
| 1885 | Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee joined forces to establish a vaudeville house called The Boston Bijou featuring continuous acts from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. By 1920, Keith and Albee controlled 400 theatres in the eastern U.S. |
| Sept. 26, 1887 | Emile Berliner's invention, the microphone was patented. |
| Nov., 1887 | Edison recorded his first wax cylinders. |
| The late 1880's | Songwriter Charles K. Harris began writing "songs made to order," laying the ground rules later adapted by Tin Pan Alley. His famous song, "After The Ball"(1892) from the show, "A Trip To Chinatown" eventually sold over 5 million copies of sheet music. |
| June 14, 1888 | Edison founded The North American Phonograph Company which originally supplied machines designed for business dictation. |
| June 29, 1888 | The first music recording in Britain occurred at The Crystal Palace. |
| 1888 | Emile Berliner invented the first flat disc made of zinc. |
| 1888 | The first recording of a popular artist was made at the Edison laboratories on a cylinder. It featured 12 year old pianist Josef Hoffman. |
| May 24, 1889 | The marketing of the first commercial musical recordings for coin operated phonographs began, available only in specially equipped phonograph parlours. |
| Oct., 1890 | Columbia issued its first record catalogue featuring performances by John Philip Sousa. |
| 1890 | Machines were able to produce 150 copies of each recording. At the time, artists were often required to record the same track up to 1,000 times. |
| 1891 | Carnegie Hall, New York City's premier concert auditorium was built. |
| 1891 | The Chicago Symphony Orchestra was founded. |
| April, 1892 | Cylinders were produced for the home market and 2,000 copies could be reproduced from each master recording. Edison cylinders continued well into the 1920's before becoming obsolete. |
| 1892 | Movies were born in New Jersey when Edison discovered a way to project moving pictures onto a screen large enough for a small audience. Edison later opened The Thomas Edison New Kinegraphic Theater in West Orange, New Jersey - the first movie studio. |
| Feb. 9, 1893 | The first public striptease occurred at The Moulin Rouge in Paris when an artist's model named Moira stripped on stage. |
| 1893 | Little Egypt performed her legendary hootchy cootchy dance at The World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. |
| Feb. 4, 1894 | Adolph Sax, the inventor of the saxophone died. |
| Nov., 1894 | Billboard Magazine began its weekly publication. |
| 1894 | Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso made his debut in Naples. |
| 1895 | The Berliner Gramophone Company created the first flat discs which were 78 r.p.m. wooden one-siders. |
| 1895 | Song slides were conceived. Hit songs were projected on screens so that audiences might sing along. |
| April 20, 1896 | John Koster and Adam Bial's 34th Street Music Hall in New York City began showing Edison's Vitascope films as an added attraction to their live acts. |
| June 26, 1896 | The first North American cinema was opened in New Orleans by William T. Rock. Named The Vitascope Hall, it seated 400. |
| 1896 | Ben Harney appeared at Tony Pastor's 14th Street Theatre in New York City, unrealistically billed as "the inventor of ragtime." |
| 1896 | Clockwork-driven gramophones with controlled speed were introduced. |
| Jan., 1897 | "Missouri Rag" by William Krills became the first piano rag to be copyrighted. |
| The late 1890's | The Cakewalk became a major dance craze. |
| Jan. 1, 1898 | New Orleans' notorious Storyville district was created, later becoming the legendary birthplace of jazz. |
| 1898 | "A Trip To Coontown" became the first legitimate all black musical comedy. |
| Nov. 29, 1899 | The world's first jukebox was installed at San Francisco's Palais Royal Hotel. |
| 1899 | Ragtime, spearheaded by the music of pianist/composer Scott Joplin, became a national trend. |
| May, 1900 | Recording quality improved with the emergence of Eldridge Johnson's Consolidated Talking Machine Company. Their logo was "his master's voice," a dog called Nipper listening at the horn of a gramophone. |
| 1900 | Dancer Isadora Duncan gave her first European performance in London, England. |
| 1900 | The Brownie Box Camera was introduced by Eastman Kodak. It sold for one dollar. |
| 1900 | There was a piano for every 10 people in Britain. |
| Oct., 1901 | The Berliner and Johnson companies merged to form The Victor Talking Machine Company. |
| Dec. 12, 1901 | Marconi first transmitted and received a trans-Atlantic radio signal. |
| Dec. 24, 1901 | 78 r.p.m. became the established playback speed. |
| March, 1902 | The Victor recordings of the great Enrico Caruso helped legitimize the recording industry. |
| Oct. 29, 1902 | The Dinwiddie Quartet became the first black vocalists on record (releasing 6 one sided discs on the Monarch label). |
| 1903 | Barbershop quartets became the rage. |
| 1903 | Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" starring Max Anderson became the first feature film with a story line. |
| 1903 | Nicole Freres invented the first unbreakable record made of cardboard with a shellac covering. |
| May 7, 1904 | Enrico Caruso's recording of "I Pagliacci Vesti La Giubba (On With The Show)" became the first ever gold disc. |
| 1904 | William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge opened Dublin's Abbey Theater. |
| Dec., 1905 | Variety became the top weekly showbusiness publication. |
| 1905 | French impressionist composer Claude-Achille Debussy incorporated ragtime syncopation into his "Golliwog Cakewalk." |
| April 9, 1906 | Jennie Evans spoke "in tongues" at the William Joseph Seymour Sanctified Revival in Los Angeles, California, beginning the Pentecostal movement in the U.S. which served as the inspiration for a catalogue of songs based on the "call & response" technique of singing. The event was a milestone in African/American music history, triggering the emergence of Gospel music. |
| Aug. 22, 1906 | The multiphone (the first commercial jukebox) made its debut, able to play 24 discs. |
| Dec. 2, 1906 | Peter Carl Goldmark, the inventor of the LP was born. |
| 1906 | Eldridge Johnson pioneered the Victrola which eliminated the horn atop the phonograph, encasing it in a speaker cabinet. |
| 1907 | The Ziegfeld Follies, an annual series of stage extravaganzas debuted, continuing until 1931. |
| Oct., 1908 | Columbia marketed America's first double sided records. |
| 1908 | Nickelodeons (motion picture theatres) were opening up all over the U.S. |
| 1908 | "A L'Ecu D'Or," the first pornographic film is released. |
| 1910 | A new dance called The Grizzly Bear took America by storm. |
| 1910 | Sheet music sales reached a staggering 2 billion. |
| 1910 | The Clef Club, a music organization to protect the interests of black musicians was founded. |
| 1911 | Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band" became a gigantic hit, eventually becoming the biggest song in recording history to date. |
| 1911 | The music hall reached its peak when Royal Command Performances were requested at The London Palladium. |
| 1912 | Edison was the only major company still manufacturing cylinders. |
| 1912 | There were 400 cinemas in London, England. |
| March 6, 1913 | The San Francisco Bulletin published a feature legitimizing jazz. |
| 1913 | Ballroom dancing, promoted internationally by Vernon & Irene Castle was at its peak and a brand new dance called the foxtrot, named after its creator Harry Fox became a global sensation. |
| 1913-1932 | Martin Beck's famous Palace Theater on 47th Street in New York City (capacity 1800) was the outstanding vaudeville house in America. |
| June 28, 1914-Nov. 11, 1918 | World War One. Patriotic songs, a great number written by George M. Cohan were the rage. |
| 1914 | ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) was established in order to protect musical copyrights. |
| 1914 | The first bona fide blues songs to be published were W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" and "Memphis Blues." The former became the song recorded by more artists than any other song in history. |
| July 1, 1915 | The first nude scene on film was performed by Australian actress Annette Kellerman in "Daughter Of The Gods." |
| 1915 | Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn opened Denishawn, the first school of modern dance. |
| Nov., 1916 | Radio pioneer Lee De Forest broadcast national election returns from his studio. |
| Jan. 30, 1917 | The Original Dixieland Jazz Band's recording of "Darktown Strutter's Ball" became the first commercial jazz recording. |
| June 27, 1917 | The Wobblies, a left wing unionizing group was founded in the U.S. Their ideas were championed by several folk artists including Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. The most outspoken, Joe Hill was executed on trumped-up charges. |
| 1917 | The Storyville area of New Orleans, the alleged birthplace of jazz was closed down by the Secretary of the Navy in an attempt to eliminate prostitution. |
| 1917 | The recording industry expanded to include many new companies such as Brunswick, Okeh and Vocalion. |
| 1917 | The National Vaudeville Artists (N.V.A.) club, backed by E. F. Albee came into being. |
| 1918 | With over 25,000 artists touring over 4,000 theatres, vaudeville was at its peak. |
| 1919 | Sidney Bechet played his Creole jazz to a captivated audience at a command performance at Buckingham Palace in London, England. |
| 1919 | The State Lake Theater, one of the finest vaudeville houses in the country opened in Chicago, Illinois. |
| 1919 | Manhattan's Roseland dance hall opened its doors. |
| Jan., 1920 | Singer Vaughn Deleath sang a Stephen Foster number from Lee De Forest's studio, beginning her reign as "The First Lady Of Radio." She perfected a relaxed style later termed "crooning" since her natural soprano voice kept blowing the fragile radio transmitters. |
| Dec., 1920 | Mamie Smith's classic recording of "Crazy Blues" became an overnight sensation. It was the first commercial blues recording. |
| May 20, 1920 | Radio station XWA (CFCF) debuted in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. |
| 1920 | American commercial radio broadcasts debut at KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. |
| 1920 | Prohibition (The Volstead Act - banning the sale or consumption of alcohol) began, lasting for 13 years. New underground bars called speakeasies featured jazz and booze. |
| 1920 | Motion pictures was the fifth largest industry in the U.S. |
| 1920 | French couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel designed her first chemise dress. |
| Sept. 9, 1921 | The first Miss America Pageant is held. |
| 1921 | Radio became a nationwide phenomenon. |
| 1921 | Total American record sales topped 100 million. |
| 1921 | Black Swan, the first black owned record company was founded. It was absorbed by Paramount in March, 1924. |
| June 30, 1922 | Fiddlers Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland recorded the first country records for Victor in New York City. |
| Nov. 14, 1922 | The BBC sent out the first daily radio program from Alexandra Palace in London, England. |
| 1922 | Owney Madden's gang took over the old Club Deluxe at 644 Lennox Avenue in New York City, renaming it The Cotton Club. It became the most famous nightclub of the Harlem Renaissance. Almost every major black artist appeared there. |
| 1922 | Sales of radios and accessories amounted to $6 million. |
| 1922 | The first C&W musician to wear western regalia during performance was Texas fiddler A. C. "Eck" Robertson. |
| 1922 | "Power Of Love," the first 3D feature film is released. |
| 1922 | Fiddler Alexander "Eck" Robertson recorded "Sally Goodin," the first commercial traditional American country music recording. |
| Feb. 16, 1923 | Bessie Smith, "The World's Greatest Blues Singer" recorded her famous "Downhearted Blues," which became a million seller. |
| March, 1923 | The first dance marathon was held. Alma Cummings danced a record 27 hours. |
| Dec. 31, 1923 | The chimes of Big Ben were broadcast by the BBC for the first time. |
| 1923 | The Charleston became the biggest dance craze of The Roaring Twenties and the song "The Charleston," originally recorded by Arthur Gibbs & His Gang, released in Jan., 1924, eventually hit #1. |
| 1923 | Time Magazine begins publication. |
| Feb. 12, 1924 | George Gershwin premiered his jazz concerto, "Rhapsody In Blue" with The Paul Whiteman Orchestra at The Aeolian Hall in New York City. |
| March 4, 1924 | The song, "Happy Birthday To You" was published by Clayton F. Summy. |
| 1924 | The Mah-Jongg game craze swept the U.S. |
| 1924-1925 | Recording techniques improved with the use of condenser microphones and artists were able to record in larger studios instead of playing directly into a recording horn. |
| Nov. 28, 1925 | The first broadcasts of "Barn Dance" began in Nashville, Tennessee. On Dec. 10, 1927, it officially changed its name to "The Grand Ole Opry." |
| 1925 | Paul Robeson appeared at New York's Greenwich Village Theater performing a concert consisting solely Negro spirituals becoming the first solo singer to do so. |
| 1925 | The dobro, an acoustically amplified guitar featuring a conical aluminum resonator was invented. It was named after the Dopyera Brothers. |
| April, 1926 | Warner Brothers formed The Vitaphone Corporation for the purpose of making sound films. |
| Aug. 6, 1926 | The first public showing of the Vitaphone sound picture process took place at New York City's Warner Theater. The program was opened by William H. Hays, the president of The Motion Picture Producers & Distributors Of America. |
| Aug. 31, 1926 | 60,000 fans gathered in New York City for the funeral of film legend Rudolph Valentino. |
| Nov. 15, 1926 | NBC radio went on the air. |
| Dec. 25, 1926 | In Chicago, Illinois, 40 policemen arrested 500 blacks and whites for doing an "immoral" dance called the black bottom. |
| 1926 | The very first LP, developed by Thomas Edison was 12 inches in diameter, 1/2 inch thick, weighed 2 pounds and was played with a diamond stylus. |
| 1926 | Columbia bought the Okeh label. |
| 1926 | The Melody Maker magazine was first published in Britain. |
| 1926 | There were 14, 637 cinemas throughout the U.S. |
| May 18, 1927 | Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened its doors at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Its first premiere was Cecil B. DeMille's "The King Of Kings." Its biggest attraction was its celebrity footprints dubbed "The Forecourt Of The Stars." In 1973, it was rechristened Mann's Chinese Theatre. |
| Sept. 18, 1927 | CBS radio went on the air. |
| Oct. 6, 1927 | Al Jolson starred in the Warner Brothers first partial talking picture, "The Jazz Singer," premiering in New York City. It eventually grossed over three and a half million dollars. |
| Dec. 27, 1927 | Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's "Showboat" premiered on Broadway, opening the door for the mass appreciation of stage musicals. |
| 1927 | The world famous Savoy Ballroom opened in Harlem, New York. It was here that the Lindy Hop, the greatest dance of the Swing Era was born. |
| 1927 | Total record sales reached a phenomenal 140 million. |
| 1927 | The first car radios are introduced. |
| 1928 | "Steamboat Willie," Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoon debuted. It was in black and white and was recorded sound on film. |
| 1928 | King Vidor released "Hallelujah," an all-black film musical. |
| Feb., 1929 | MGM's "Broadway Melody," the first all talking, all singing, all dancing movie premiered. |
| May 16, 1929 | The first Oscars presentation was held at The Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, California. |
| Oct. 29, 1929 | Often called "Black Tuesday," the Wall Street market collapsed and The Great Depression began. |
| Nov. 20, 1929 | The Morman Tabernacle Choir first broadcast from Salt Lake City, Utah, later becoming network radio's longest running program. |
| 1929 | More than 9,000 American theatres were equipped to show sound films. |
| 1929 | The first full length all-black sound film, "Hallelujah" debuted. |
| 1929 | The Casa Loma Orchestra recorded for Okeh in New York paving the way for swing. |
| Aug., 1931 | The new Earl Carroll Theatre opened at 7th Avenue and 50th Street in New York City, claiming to be the largest legitimate theatre in the world. It featured 3,000 seats, each equipped with its own reading light. |
| Sept. 2, 1931 | Bing Crosby's first national radio program debuted. |
| Oct. 18, 1931 | Thomas Edison died. |
| 1931 | Columbia Records bought by Grgsby-Grunow. |
| 1931 | In the U.K., Columbia and The Gramophone Company merged to create Electrical & Musical Industries (EMI). |
| 1931 | CBS made its first experimental television transmission. |
| 1931 | Victor introduced the unsuccessful 10" single-sided long playing record. |
| 1931 | The Empire State Building opened in New York City. |
| Dec. 25, 1932 | king George V made the first Royal Christmas Broadcast. |
| 1932 | The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) was established, later becoming the CBC in 1936. |
| 1932 | Total record sales in America dropped to 6 million. |
| July 28, 1933 | The first singing telegram was delivered to singer/bandleader Rudy Vallee. The messenger sang "Happy Birthday." |
| Dec. 5, 1933 | Prohibition (The Volstead Act of 1920 - banning the sale or consumption of alcohol) was repealed. Bars were re-opened and jukeboxes were installed. |
| 1933 | Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers debuted together in the film "Flying Down To Rio," later becoming the darlings of the American film going public and eventually the greatest dance duo in history. |
| 1933 | Laurens Hammond invented the Hammond organ. |
| June, 1934 | Billboard Magazine began printing sales surveys. |
| Sept., 1934 | Decca Records, a European company expanded to America. The price of a record was 35 cents. |
| 1934 | The Apollo Theatre opened in Harlem, New York. It became the singular most important showcase for African-American music. |
| 1934 | "The Continental," written by Herb Magidson and Con Conrad, received the first Oscar awarded to a song. |
| 1934 | William S. Paley's Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) has grown to 100 radio affiliates. |
| 1934 | The first Django Reinhardt-Stephane Grappelli session takes place. |
| April 20, 1935 | Radio broadcasts of "Your Hit Parade" began. A weekly countdown of the top hits, it later moved to television in 1950 and continued until April 24, 1959. |
| Aug. 21, 1935 | Benny Goodman and his orchestra heralded the beginning of "The Swing Era" with their successful appearances at The Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, California. |
| Oct. 11, 1935 | George Gershwin's landmark stage musical, "Porgy And Bess" debuted on Broadway featuring an all black cast. |
| Jan. 4, 1936 | Billboard Magazine published the world's first pop record sales chart. |
| 1936 | The jukebox became a nationwide phenomenon with over 225,000 in operation by 1939. |
| 1937 | The jitterbug became the big new dance sensation, fueled by the swing music of Benny Goodman. |
| Jan. 16, 1938 | Jazz and swing music gained legitimacy with Benny Goodman's concert at Carnegie Hall. |
| June 1, 1938 | "Superman" was launched by Action Comics. |
| Oct. 31, 1938 | Orson Welles' classic radio broadcast of "The War Of The Worlds" caused pandemonium when legions of Americans believed that the world was being invaded by Martians. |
| Dec. 23, 1938 | John Hammond’s first "From Spirituals To Swing" concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Acts featured included Count Basie, Big Bill Broonzy, Jimmy Rushing and James P. Johnson. |
| Dec., 1938 | Cafe Society, New York City's first integrated nightclub was opened by Barney Josephson. |
| 1938 | CBS bought ARC-BRC (Brunswick-Volcalion) for $700,000. |
| 1938 | The 40 hour work week was established in the U.S. |
| March 25, 1939 | Billboard Magazine introduced its "hillbilly" chart. |
| Sept. 1, 1939 | World War Two broke out with Germany's invasion of Poland. Many major music stars began touring with the U.S.O. |
| Dec. 24, 1939 | John Hammond's second "From Spirituals To Swing" concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Acts featured included Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Sonny Terry. |
| 1939 | New York's World's Fair opened. |
| 1939 | Concert pitch, a standard international pitch was agreed upon. It is understood to be based on an A note of 440 hertz. |
| World War II | Rationing of shellac, a major ingredient of records at the time, dealt a blow to the recording industry. |
| Feb., 1940 | Glenn Miller's classic "In The Mood" held the #1 spot for 12 consecutive weeks, making Miller's band the most popular of the big band era. |
| 1940 | FM radio was first demonstrated. |
| 1940 | The first nylon stockings went on sale. |
| 1941 | Radio stations organized their own performing rights society to rival ASCAP, called BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.). |
| 1941 | The Grand Ole Opry moved to The Rynman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. |
| June 4, 1942 | Capitol Records was launched in Los Angeles, California by composer Johnny Mercer, songwriter/film producer Buddy DeSylva and record store owner Glenn Wallichs. Wallichs pioneered the art of record promotion by mailing new record releases to disc jockeys. |
| Aug. 1, 1942 - Sept. 18, 1943 | The American Federation Of Musicians went on strike. The dispute concerned musician royalties. |
| Sept., 1942 | Elton Britt's patriotic "There's A Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" went to #7 nationally, making it the first country crossover disc. |
| Oct. 24, 1942 | Billboard Magazine debuted its first black music chart, "The Harlem Hit Parade." It was later renamed the "Rhythm & Blues" chart on June 25, 1949. |
| Oct., 1942 | Bing Crosby's recording of "White Christmas" from the film, "Holiday Inn," became the biggest selling record in music history, eventually topping the 30 million mark. |
| March 31, 1943 | Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" premiered at The St. James Theatre in New York City. It ran for 2212 performances, making it the longest running show to date. The Pulitzer Prize winning show was the first historic combination of story, music and dance. |
| Jan. 17, 1944 | The first jazz concert was held at The New York Metropolitan Opera. |
| Oct. 12, 1944 | Some 30,000 bobbysoxers stormed Manhattan's Paramount Theatre to scream for the new singing sensation, Frank Sinatra. |
| 1944 | The Golden Globe Awards was established. |
| Jan., 1945 | J&M Studio was opened by Cosimo Matassa in New Orleans where some of the best New Orleans style R&B recordings were made. |
| 1945 | CHUM/AM radio in Toronto, Ontario began its programming and subsequent monopoly of the Canadian airwaves. |
| Dec., 1946 | Eight of America's biggest bands including Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey disbanded, officially marking the end of the big band era. |
| 1946 | Mercury Records was established in Chicago, Illinois. |
| 1946 | Mahalia Jackson's gospel recording of "Move On Up A Little Higher" sold over 2 million copies. |
| Oct., 1947 | Atlantic Records was founded by Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, later becoming the top R&B record company in North America. |
| Oct., 1947 | The first country music show staged at New York City's Carnegie Hall was headlined by Ernest Tubb. |
| 1947 | The Tony Awards, named after Antoinette Perry (head of The American Theatre Wing during World War Two) was established in New York City. |
| 1947 | Paul Bigby perfected the prototype of a solid bodied electric guitar. |
| 1947 | The Actors Studio was founded in New York City to teach Stanislavsky's method acting. |
| April 3, 1948 | The Louisiana Hayride radio program began broadcasting on KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana. |
| June 21, 1948 | CBS created the 33 1/3 r.p.m. long playing (LP) record. It was invented by Peter Goldmark. |
| Fall, 1948 | Network television programming began in the U.S. |
| 1948 | Victor debuted its new innovation - the 7 inch 45 r.p.m. microgroove record, dubbed "the little record with the big hole." |
| 1948 | Leo Fender's Broadcaster guitar became available. In 1950, it was renamed the Telecaster, later becoming the most distinctive guitar in rock. |
| 1948 | The Hell's Angels motorcycle group was formed. |
| 1948 | Transistors and photocopiers were introduced. |
| 1948 | The Aldeburgh Festival, an annual music festival was founded by composer Benjamin Britten in Suffolk, U.K. |
| April 7, 1949 | Rodgers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific" debuted on Broadway. The original cast album remained at #1 for an unprecedented 69 weeks. |
| Dec., 1949 | Birdland, the famous New York City jazz club named in honour of Charlie "Bird" Parker opened at 1678 Broadway. |
| 1949 | Ed Sullivan, a former sports columnist began broadcasting his variety shows (originally called "The Toast Of The Town") from The Ed Sullivan Theatre at 1697 Broadway in New York City. The TV program ran until June 6, 1971. |
| 1949 | KXLA in Pasadena, California became the first all-country radio station. |
| 1949 | The Emmy Awards, celebrating TV's best was established. |
| Jan., 1950 | Sam Phillips opened the doors of his Memphis Recording Studio at 706 Union St., later renaming it Sun in 1952. He recorded numerous black artists and in 1954, 18 year old Elvis Presley made his first disc there. |
| 1950 | The first use of an echo chamber was "Foolish Heart" by Junior Mance (a boom mike was set up in a bathroom). |
| 1950 | The first credit card is introduced by The Diner's Club. |
| Early, 1951 | Alan Freed promoted a Moondog Ball at The Cleveland Arena featuring top R&B acts. 25, 000 teenagers mobbed the 10, 000 seat venue and the show was cancelled. |
| 1951 | Leo Fender invented the electric bass guitar and introduced the Precision bass. |
| March 27, 1952 | Sun Records' debut release was "Drivin' Slow" by saxophonist Johnny London. |
| Nov. 14, 1952 | The New Musical Express printed the first ever top 12 record chart in Britain. By 1978, it had become top 75, and on Jan.8, 1983, chart compilation was taken over by Gallup and was renamed The British Record Industry Chart. |
| 1952 | Les Paul's Gold Top Standard guitar debuted. |
| 1952 | The National Enquirer debuted. |
| 1952 | Sony introduced its miniature transistor radio. |
| 1952 | The landmark "Anthology Of American Folk Music" 6 LP set, edited by Harry Smith was released on Folkways. |
| April 3, 1953 | TV Guide began publication. |
| 1953 | Playboy Magazine is founded by 27 year old Hugh Hefner. It featured Marilyn Monroe on the cover. |
| Jan. 4, 1954 | Elvis Presley recorded 2 songs at the Sun Records studios at 706 Union Street, Memphis, Tennessee. The numbers, "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" were a birthday present for his mother. |
| July, 1954 | Elvis Presley made his first public appearance at a Memphis, Tennessee nightclub called The Bel Air Club (4862 Summer Avenue). |
| Aug., 1954 | The first commercial recording by Elvis Presley was released by Sun Records. |
| 1954 | The first 8 track recorder was built by Les Paul. |
| 1954 | "High Fidelity" became the popular term used to describe the new enhanced sound found on the 33 1/3 r.p.m. 12" long playing records. |
| 1954 | The 45 r.p.m. single's domination of the market signaled the ultimate demise of the 78 r.p.m. 10" disc. |
| Jan. 7, 1955 | Marian Anderson became the first black artist to perform at The Met. |
| May, 1955 | Bill Haley & His Comets' recording of "Rock Around The Clock" from the film, "The Blackboard Jungle" went to #1 for 8 weeks, triggering the beginning of the rock era. It had previously gone to #23 in May, 1954. The record eventually sold more than 20 million copies. |
| July 18, 1955 | Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. |
| Oct. 26, 1955 | "The Village Voice" newspaper was launched. |
| Nov. 22, 1955 | RCA purchased Elvis Presley's contract from Sun Records for $25,000. |
| 1955 | The first Newport Jazz Festival was held. |
| 1955 | The Davy Crockett fad swept the U.S., fueled by the success of the Disney TV series, "Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier." Coonskin cap sales soared. |
| March 15, 1956 | Colonel Tom Parker became Elvis Presley's manager. |
| March, 1956 | Elvis Presley's classic recording of "Heartbreak Hotel" went to #1 for 8 weeks, marking the beginning of his reign as "The King Of Rock And Roll." |
| April 6, 1956 | The Capitol Tower building had its grand opening in Hollywood, California. |
| May 24, 1956 | The Quarrymen's first ever performance took place on the back of a truck at an open air party in Roseberry St. in Liverpool, England. The band would eventually evolve into The Beatles. |
| Dec. 4, 1956 | The famous Million Dollar Session took place at the Sun studios. On hand were Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. |
| 1956 | Lerner & Loewe's musical, "My Fair Lady" debuted on Broadway. |
| 1956 | The Eurovision Song Contest began, linking up European nations via television. Great Britain did not participate until 1957. |
| 1956 | Harry Belafonte's "Calypso" LP became the first album by a solo artist to sell 1 million copies. |
| Jan. 16, 1957 | The Cavern Jazz Club opened in Liverpool, England. By 1960, it had become a rock venue, later the home of The Beatles and Mersey Beat. |
| May 27, 1957 | CHUM radio debuted in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, later premiering their weekly CHUM charts listing the top hits. |
| May, 1957 | Disc jockey Alan Freed premiered his half hour ABC TV program, "The Alan Freed Show." |
| Aug. 5, 1957 | Monday, 3 pm. - "American Bandstand," hosted by Dick Clark was telecast nationwide for the first time. It had originated earlier in Sept., 1952 with host Bob Horn. In July, 1956, Clark became the regular host. The program aired from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
| Dec. 6, 1957 | A one time only gathering of jazz greats appeared live on a TV special, "The Sound Of Jazz." Included were Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, Thelonius Monk, Ben Webster and Billie Holiday. |
| 1957 | Buddy Holly & The Crickets became the first white group to play The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. The management had supposed that they were black. |
| 1957 | NARAS (The National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences) was founded. |
| 1957 | Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" was published. |
| Feb., 1958 | "The Dick Clark Show" premiered on ABC TV as a weekly Saturday night pop variety program. |
| Feb., 1958 | Rock and roll was banned in Iran and Egypt after Iranian doctors stated that young dancers were injuring their hips because of the extreme gyrations. |
| March 24, 1958-March 5, 1960 | Elvis Presley served in the U.S. Army. |
| May 3, 1958 | A Boston rock and roll concert organized by Alan Freed became a fiasco when a white female fan rushed the stage and grabbed the crotch of The Cadillac's black lead singer Earl "Speedo" Carroll. The police stopped the show and a riot ensued. |
| Aug., 1958 | Billboard Magazine introduced The Hot 100 Singles Chart. |
| Nov. 5, 1958 | The first British LP chart was published by The Melody Maker Magazine. The first #1 album was the "South Pacific" soundtrack. |
| Nov., 1958 | The cha-cha, the latest Latin American dance craze took America by storm. |
| Nov., 1958 | The CMA (The Country Music Association) was founded. |
| 1958 | RCA became the first major label to release a large selection of albums in stereo. |
| 1958 | The Grammy Awards began. |
| 1958 | Gibson Guitars patented their unique Flying V model. |
| 1958 | The first all-rock radio station, WHB Kansas City, debuted. |
| 1958 | Hula Hoops became a fad and 20 million were sold in 6 months. |
| Feb. 3, 1959 | Commonly called "The Day The Music Died," it was the day that the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper crashed near Mason City, Iowa. |
| Feb. 12, 1959 | Mattel manufactured the very first Barbie Doll. It retailed for $3 and was named Barbie Millicent Roberts. |
| June 1, 1959 | Juke Box Jury began broadcasting on BBC TV in Britain. |
| July 17, 1959 | Legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday died of a heroin overdose. |
| 1959 | Rodgers & Hammerstein's landmark musical, "The Sound Of Music" debuted on Broadway. It played 1,443 performances and collected 6 Tony Awards. The show originally starred Mary Martin as Maria Von Trapp. It was later adapted to the screen in 1965 starring Julie Andrews. |
| May, 1960 | A Manhattan Grand Jury indicted DJ Alan Freed on charges of accepting $30,650 in payola. |
| Aug., 1960 | Chubby Checker's recording of "The Twist" went to #1, triggering one of the biggest dance crazes of the century. |
| 1960 | Berry Gordy Jr. formed his own record company in Detroit, Michigan. Originally called Tammie, it later became Tamla Records, the basis for what later would evolve into Motown. |
| March 21, 1961 | The Beatles made the first of 292 appearances at Liverpool, England's famous Cavern Club. Their final gig took place Aug. 3, 1963. |
| April, 1961 | The CMA held its first official Country Music Festival at Jacksonville Coliseum in Florida. Artists taking part included Faron Young, Webb Piece and Patsy Cline. |
| June 2, 1961 | The first successful conviction of record bootlegging took place in Hackensack, New Jersey. |
| Aug., 1961 | The first Mariposa Folk Festival was held in Orillia, Ontario, Canada and featured Ian & Sylvia and Bonnie Dobson playing to an audience of a mere 2,000. It later moved to the Toronto islands, and finally Barrie, Ontario. |
| 1961 | Preservation Hall was founded at 726 St. Peter St. in New Orleans, Louisiana by Allan and Sandra Jaffe in order to present authentic jazz played by its originators. |
| 1961 | The Country Music Hall Of Fame museum was built in Nashville, Tennessee. |
| 1961 | Rachel Zylberberg opened the first discotheque in Paris, France. |
| 1962 | The very first Motortown Review opened at The Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. |
| 1962 | "Everytime I Feel The Spirit" by Mahalia Jackson won the very first Gospel Grammy Award. |
| Jan. 11, 1963 | America's first discotheque, The Whiskey A Go-Go opened in Los Angeles, California. |
| Jan. 26, 1963 | Bishop Burke of the Catholic diocese of Buffalo, New York banned the twist from any Catholic schools. |
| March 5, 1963 | Country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas died in a plane crash near Patterson, Tennessee. |
| May 15, 1963 | Bent Fabric's piano novelty hit, "Alley Cat'" (later, a dance fad for seniors) won a Grammy Award for Best Rock 'N Roll Recording, proving how absolutely uneducated the committee was rock 'n roll. |
| May 17, 1963 | The first Monterey Folk Festival featured Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. |
| Aug. 9, 1963 | "Ready Steady Go," Britain's top rock TV program debuted. It was mc'd by Cathy McGowan. On Dec. 23, 1966, it went off the air. |
| Nov. 30, 1963-Jan. 23, 1965 | The charting of black oriented music in Billboard Magazine was discontinued because of difficulties in pinpointing exactly just what constituted as R&B. |
| Dec., 1963 | Premium Records released the "John Fitzgerald Kennedy - A Memorial Album" for 99 cents. It sold 4 million copies in 6 days, making it the fastest selling record in history to date. |
| 1963 | The Beatles' 2nd LP, "With The Beatles" became the first million selling album in the UK. |
| 1963 | Pop Art is awarded its first major display at The Guggenheim Museum in New York City. |
| Jan. 1, 1964 | The long-running British TV show, "The Top Of The Pops" began broadcasting from a disused church in Manchester, England. The host was DJ Jimmy Savile. |
| Feb. 9, 1964 | The Beatles were seen for the first time live in the U.S. when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. They performed on 3 shows for $2,400 a show. |
| Feb. 24, 1964 | R.P.M. Magazine began publication in Toronto, Ontario, becoming Canada's first major music publication. |
| March 28, 1964 | Britain's first pirate radio station, Radio Caroline began broadcasting. |
| March 29, 1964 | Two rival British youth factions called mods and rockers clashed on the beaches at Claxton, Essex. |
| March 31, 1964 | The Beatles occupied the top five spots on the American singles chart. |
| Sept. 16, 1964 | The pop variety program, "Shindig" hosted by Jimmy McNeill, premiered on ABC TV, continuing until Jan. 5, 1966. |
| 1964 | West Coast country artists created their own trade organization called The Academy Of Country And Western Music. |
| 1964 | The R.P.M. Gold Leaf Awards began in Canada, later becoming The Juno Awards in 1970. |
| 1964 | The skateboarding fad took hold in California. |
| 1964 | The American Congress passed President Johnson's Civil Rights Act. |
| Jan., 1965 | "Hullabaloo," NBC TV's answer to "Shindig" premiered. |
| May, 1965 | The Who's "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" became the first charted British single to feature feedback. |
| June, 1965 | The Red Dog Saloon opened in Virginia City, Nevada. San Francisco's Charlatans were the house band. |
| July 25, 1965 | Bob Dylan, backed by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, performed an electric set at The Newport Folk Festival. Folk purists called it an abomination. |
| Aug. 20, 1965 | With partner Tony Calder, Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham formed Immediate Records. |
| Aug. 27, 1965 | The Beatles visited Elvis Presley at his home in Bel-Air, California. |
| Aug., 1965 | Marty Balin opened The Matrix, a pizza parlor turned rock club in San Francisco, California. |
| Oct., 1965 | The Family Dog (Jack Towle, Luria Castell, Ellen Harmon and Al Kelly) was formed in San Francisco, California for the purpose of organizing dances and concerts. |
| Oct. 16, 1965 | The first Family Dog concert was held at The Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco, California. It featured Jefferson Airplane and The Great Society. |
| Nov. 10, 1965 | The first concert organized by Bill Graham at The Fillmore Auditorium (then called The Carousel) in San Francisco, California featured The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Charlatans. |
| 1965 | The Fender Guitar Company was purchased by CBS for $13 million. |
| 1965 | Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue opened Mothers in the North beach area of San Francisco, California. It is considered to be the first psychedelic nightclub. |
| 1965 | AACM (The Association For The Advancement Of Creative Musicians), a jazz cp-operative was set up in Chicago in order to nurture black musicians. |
| 1965 | In his pamphlet, "Communism, Hypnotism & The Beatles," Reverend David Noebel claimed that The Beatles' music was part of a Satanic Communist plot to jam the nervous systems of the youth. He urged everyone to throw their Beatles records in the dump. |
| Jan., 1966 | "The Trips Festival" mixed media event was held at The Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco, California. |
| Jan., 1966 | The Psychedelic Shop opened in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district selling records, books, drug paraphernalia and other items associated with the hippie culture. |
| Feb. 7, 1966 | The first edition of the rock magazine Crawdaddy was published. |
| Feb. 28, 1966 | In Liverpool, England, The Cavern Club was shut down. |
| June 10, 1966 | The first recording to feature reverse tapes was "Rain" by The Beatles. |
| Oct. 14, 1966 | The underground newspaper, "International Times" was launched in London, England. It was the first of its kind in Europe. |
| Oct. 8, 1966 | LSD was officially banned in the U.S. |
| 1966 | Wes Wilson's poster for a Fillmore concert set the tone for psychedelic art. |
| Jan. 1, 1967 | "The Giant Freakout" was held at The Roundhouse in London, England. |
| Saturday, Jan. 14, 1967 | "The Gathering Of The Tribes" - "The Human Be-In" was held at The Polo Field in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. |
| Jan. 17, 1967-Jan., 1971 | The Boston Tea Party was the most important rock venue in Boston, Massachusetts. |
| April, 1967 | The Gray Line bus tour company debuted its "Hippie Hop" trip through San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. |
| May 25, 1967 | John Lennon's Romany Rolls Royce was painted in psychedelic art nouveau. |
| April 27, 1967 | Expo '67 opened in Montreal, Quebec. Many Canadian musicians enjoyed international exposure. |
| April 29, 1967 | An all night concert called The International Times 14 Hour Technicolour Dream, featuring 41 groups took place at Alexander Palace in London, England. |
| May 1, 1967 | Elvis Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu. |
| June 1, 1967 | The Beatles' masterpiece album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released in Britain. The North American release date was June 2, 1967. The record heralded "The Summer Of Love." |
| June 16-18, 1967 | The Monterey Pop Festival, a three day celebration of music, love and flowers, organized by John Phillips of The Mamas And The Papas became the first ever major rock festival. Artists involved included Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, The Who, Eric Burdon & The Animals and Ravi Shankar. Two new phrases, "make love not war" and "save water, bathe with a friend" were added to our vocabulary. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin emerged as the two new discoveries. The estimated attendance was 72,000. |
| June 25, 1967 | Four hundred million people in 27 countries viewed the TV show, "Our World." It was the first time a program was broadcast live around the world. The Beatles and several other international pop stars sang "All You Need Is Love" at E.M.I. studios in London, England. |
| Nov. 9, 1967 | The first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine rolled off the press. Founded in San Francisco, California, it later moved to New York City. |
| Oct., 1967 | "The Death Of The Hippie" was staged in San Francisco, California by the residents of Haight Ashbury as a protest against the commercialization of hippie ideals. |
| Oct. 7, 1967 | "Hair (The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical)" opened off Broadway. In April of 1968, it moved to The Biltmore Theatre. |
| March 8, 1968 | Bill Graham opened his Fillmore East Auditorium in New York City. |
| March 9, 1968 | The Beatles received 4 Grammys for their "Sgt. Pepper" album. |
| April, 1968 | The Beatles' new company, Apple Corps. Ltd. opened at 95 Wigmore Street in London, England. |
| May 18, 1968 | The Northern California Rock Festival was held in Santa Clara and featured Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Big Brother & The Holding Company, The Grateful Dead and The Steve Miller Band. |
| Aug. 11, 1968 | The first four singles were released on The Beatles' Apple label. The company would be defunct by 1975. |
| Dec., 1968 | The Miami Pop Festival, featuring Fleetwood Mac, The Grateful Dead and Richie Havens attracted an audience of 100,000. |
| Dec., 1968 | NBC aired the TV special "Elvis," later called "The Elvis Presley Comeback Special." |
| 1968 | The British Board Of Film Censors was introduced. |
| Jan., 1969 | The Beatles last live performance ever took place on the roof of their record company offices at Savile Row in London, England. It was filmed for the documentary, "Let It Be." |
| March 9, 1969 | "The Smothers Brothers" TV show was cancelled by CBS after they refused to censor lyrics in a Joan Baez song. |
| March 26, 1969 | The Hearst Corporation's music tabloid Eye Magazine folded. |
| April 23, 1969 | The famous folk and blues club, The Ash Grove in Los Angeles, California burned down. |
| Summer, 1969 | The first bootleg ever was "Great White Wonder," a two record set of unissued Bob Dylan material. It first appeared in Los Angeles, California. |
| June 14, 1969 | The biggest soul music festival ever was held at The Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas. |
| June, 1969 | "Hee-Haw," the weekly country music and comedy TV program debuted. |
| June, 1969 | The Atlanta Pop Festival was held. Over 14,000 fans came to hear Led Zeppelin, Canned Heat and Johnny Winter among others. |
| Aug. 9, 1969 | Five persons including actress Sharon Tate were murdered, the victims of the Manson family. Charles Manson believed that The Beatles were sending him messages in the song, "Helter Skelter." |
| Aug. 15-17, 1969 | The Woodstock Music And Art Fair was held at Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York. Over 400,000 people attended the concert. It was the largest peaceful gathering to date. Artists taking part included The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, Crosby Stills & Nash, Sly & The Family Stone, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe MacDonald, Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Ten Years After, Sha Na Na, Canned Heat, Santana, John Sebastian, The Butterfield Blues Band, Melanie and Mountain. |
| Aug. 29-Sept.1, 1969 | The Freak Out At Rockhill Park was held near Orangeville, Ontario, Canada. It featured 21 Canadian bands on 3 stages. Artists taking part included The Guess Who, The 5 Man Electrical Band, Lighthouse and Motherlode. |
| Dec. 6, 1969 | Some 300,000 people attended a concert featuring The Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. It turned into a fiasco when a member of the Hell's Angels murdered 18 year old Meredith Hunter directly in front of the stage. The event was filmed and later released as "Gimme Shelter" in 1970. |
| 1969 | "The Black Arts Feastival" concert scheduled at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Michigan featuring musical acts, Timothy Leary, clairvoyant Peter Hurlos and Chuch Of Satan founder Anton LeVey was cancelled after pressure from the local Council Of Churches. |
| The late 1960's | The Dutch-based electronics company Phillips introduced the compact cassette. |
| Jan. 24, 1970 | Dr. Robert Moog debuted his invention, the mini-moog, a miniature synthesizer. |
| June 30, 1970 | Ground was broken for the new Opryland amusement park in Nashville, Tennessee. |
| May 4, 1970 | U.S. National Guardsmen fired into a group of unarmed students at Kent State. Four were killed. The incident was later painfully described in the song, "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills & Nash. |
| June 29, 1970-July 3, 1970 | The Festival Express Canada tour stopping at Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary featured Janis Joplin, Delaney & Bonnie, The Grateful Dead, Ian & Sylvia and Eric Andersen. |
| July, 1970 | Disc jockey Casey Casem's syndicated radio program, "American Top Forty" debuted. |
| Aug., 1970 | The Isle Of Wight Pop Festival featured The Band, The Who, Bob Dylan, The Moody Blues and The Nice. Over 200,000 fans attended. |
| Nov. 15, 1970 | The Beatles officially disbanded. |
| The 1970's | 8 track tapes gave way to standard format audio cassettes. |
| Jan. 7, 1971 | Long hair for men is declared legal in the USSR. |
| Jan. 18, 1971 | Pierre Juneau's proposal of a 30% Canadian content act was adopted by Canadian AM radio stations. Called CanCon, the law forced Canadian content between 6 a.m. and 12 midnight. |
| Aug. 1, 1971 | The Concert For Bangladesh was held at New York's Madison Square Garden. Organized by George Harrison, it was a benefit event for the United Nations Children's Fund for refugee children in Bangladesh and featured such artists as Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Badfinger, Eric Clapton and Ravi Shankar. The triple album of the concert was released in Dec., 1971. |
| Dec. 3, 1971 | The Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland burnt down mid way through a set by The Mothers Of Invention. $50,000 worth of the group's equipment was lost. |
| 1971 | Both The Fillmore East and The Fillmore West closed their doors. |
| 1971 | David Geffen founded Asylum Records with $400,000. In 1972, he sold it to Warner Brothers for $5 million. |
| Jan. 17, 1972 | Highway 51 South (Bellvue St.) in Memphis, Tennessee was renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard. |
| Jan. 27, 1972 | Gospel great, Mahalia Jackson died at the age of 64 in Chicago, Illinois. |
| May 3, 1972 | Les Harvey of the rock band Stone The Crows was electrocuted on stage at The Top Rank Ballroom in Swansea, Wales before 12,000 students. |
| 1972 | The scratched record technique later utilized in hip-hop music became possible when Technics introduced the legendary SL-1200 turntable. |
| Jan. 15, 1973 | The "Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii" concert at Honolulu International Center was broadcast live via satellite to Japan and the Far East. The U.S. and Europe saw a recorded version. An estimated audience of 1.5 billion made it the largest ever event to date. |
| June 28, 1973 | Richard Nader's British Re-Invasion Show was held at Madison Square Gardens in New York City featuring Herman's Hermits, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas and The Searchers. |
| July 28, 1973 | The largest rock festival ever was held at The Watkins Glen Summer Jam, New York. Some 600,000 fans attended a one day show featuring The Grateful Dead, The Band and The Allman Brothers Band. |
| 1973 | Dick Clark's annual "American Music Awards" began. |
| 1973 | Pioneer punk club CBGB's opened its doors in Manhattan. |
| Feb. 15, 1974 | New York City's famous Bottom Line club opened. |
| March 15, 1974 | The last edition of The Grand Ole Opry held at the Ryman Auditorium before moving to Opryland U.S.A. The last song sung there was George Morgan's "Candy Kisses." |
| March 16, 1974 | President Richard Nixon attended the opening of the new Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland U.S.A. |
| July 28, 1974 | The group Animation completed the live performance endurance record to date by playing a 140 hours and 34 minutes long gig at St. Andrews Church Hall in Liverpool, England. |
| 1974 | The Juno Awards were broadcast live for the first time on CBC TV in Canada. |
| 1975 | "A Chorus Line" debuted on Broadway, later becoming the longest running musical to date. |
| 1975 | The Knebworth Pop Festival was held near London, England. Over 100,000 people attended the event featuring Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart and Steve Miller. |
| Jan. 12, 1976 | Stax Records closed its doors in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| Jan. 19, 1976 | The Beatles refused U.S. promoter Bill Sargent's offer of $30 million in advance to reform. |
| Jan., 1976 | The debut issue of "Punk" magazine was published in New York City. |
| July, 1976 | The first British magazine for punks, "Sniffin' Glue" debuted. |
| 1976 | The Who debuted the first use of lasers in a live performance. |
| 1976 | The "Wanted: The Outlaws" album featuring Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser became the first country album to go platinum. |
| March 4, 1977 | The Rolling Stones with opening act April Wine, played at The El Mocambo in Toronto, Ontario. Canada's first lady, Margaret Trudeau was in attendance and the scandal sheets had a heyday. |
| April, 1977 | Studio 54, the world's most famous disco opened on West 54th Street in New York City. |
| May 12, 1977 | The first quadraphonic concert was held at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England. It featured Pink Floyd. |
| Aug. 16, 1977 | Elvis Presley died at his Graceland mansion. |
| Dec. 7, 1977 | Peter Goldmark, the inventor of the LP died in a car accident on the centennial of the invention of the phonograph. |
| 1977 | "Saturday Night Fever," a movie starring John Travolta and featuring the music of The Bee Gees, triggered the mass interest in disco music. |
| 1977 | CB's (Citizen's Band Radios) became the latest fad. |
| 1977 | The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band became the first American pop group to tour the U.S.S.R. |
| 1977 | The first platinum cassette was "Frampton Comes Alive" by Peter Frampton. |
| 1977 | Gramophone Magazine presented its first annual classical music awards. |
| 1977 | The ABC TV mini-series of Alex Haley's "Roots" drew 130 million viewers. |
| 1977 | Hip-hop spraygun graffiti began to appear in New York subways. |
| The late 1970's | Extended play big singles, originally marketed for disc jockey use during the disco craze caught on as a commercial product. |
| The late 1970's | With the emergence of The Sex Pistols, the punk rock movement gained momentum. |
| June, 1978 | Seminal Canadian coffee house, Bernie Fiedler's The Riverboat in Toronto, Ontario's Yorkville district closed its doors. It had been immortalized in Neil Young's song, "Ambulance Blues." |
| Aug. 27, 1978 | 80,000 fans attended the first Canadian Jam rock festival in Ontario. Acts included The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Village People, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Kansas and Commodores. |
| 1978 | The first picture-disc 45: "Hold The Line" by Toto was released. |
| 1978 | The Paradise Garage dance palace held its grand opening in New York City. It had been open for more than a year. |
| Jan. 5, 1979 | The "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack album rang up its 25 millionth sale. |
| Dec., 1979 | Eleven people were trampled to death at a concert in Cincinnati, Ohio featuring The Who. |
| Dec. 15, 1979 | Chris Haney and Scott Abbott invented the board game Trivial Pursuit. |
| The 1980's | Beta and VHS video tapes were marketed, with VHS winning out by 1990. By 1992, Beta was almost extinct. |
| Dec. 8, 1980 | John Lennon was murdered outside The Dakota Apartment Building in New York City at 10.00 p.m. by disturbed fan, Mark David Chapman. |
| 1980 | The first videodisc with picture and sound was marketed. |
| 1980 | David Geffen launched Geffen Records. |
| 1980 | Nick Logan launched "The Face," a British magazine devoted to club culture. |
| 1980 | Roland launched its TR-808 analog drum machine which revolutionized dance music. |
| 1980 | ABC's "20/20" broadcast a segment titled "The Rap Phenomenon." |
| May 16, 1981 | Elvis Presley's doctor, George "Dr. Nick" Nickopoulos was indicted in Memphis, Tennessee for prescribing large amounts of drugs to the singer (a reported 12,000 over a 20 month period). |
| July 29, 1981 | The wedding of Price Charles and Lady Diana Spencer became the media event of the year. |
| Aug. 1, 1981 | MTV debuted in the U.S. The first video programmed was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles. |
| 1981 | Bow Wow Wow released the first commercially available cassette-only single, "Your Cassette Pet." |
| 1981 | IBM introduced the personal computer. |
| 1982 | The Trivial Pursuit game was introduced featuring an entertainment category. |
| March, 1983 | CD's, the first compact discs made of aluminum and played with a laser stylus were launched as a commercial product by Philips and Sony. |
| June 29, 1983 | Harlem's Apollo Theatre was designated a New York City landmark. |
| Aug. 31, 1984 | Much Music, Canada's music video station began broadcasting. |
| Dec., 1984 | Band Aid, a collection of British pop stars headed by Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats, recorded "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in London, England as a benefit recording for African famine relief. The disc became the biggest selling British single of all time to date (over 3 1/2 million copies). |
| 1984 | The first video Juno Award was won by Corey Hart for "Sunglasses At Night." |
| 1984 | Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" LP passed its 500 week mark on the Billboard album chart. |
| Jan. 8, 1985 | The U.S. postal service issued a set of commemorative stamps marking the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth. |
| Jan. 28, 1985 | U.S.A. For Africa, a collection of American pop stars headed by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones recorded "We Are The World" in Hollywood as a benefit recording for African famine relief. |
| Feb. 10, 1985 | Northern Lights, a collection of 53 Canadian pop stars headed by David Foster and Bryan Adams recorded "Tears Are Not Enough" in Toronto, Ontario as a benefit recording for African famine relief. |
| April 5, 1985 | Good Friday at 3:50 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, 5,000 radio stations around the world programmed "We Are The World" simultaneously. |
| April 18, 1985 | An album by Wham became the first ever Western pop album released in China. |
| July 13, 1985 | Live Aid, the worldwide concert for African famine relief was organized by Bob Geldof. 1.5 billion people watched the concert on TV. The two main concert sites were JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and Wembley Stadium in London, England. Over 70 million dollars was raised. |
| Oct. 2, 1985 | Rock Hudson became the first major celebrity to die of AIDS. |
| Dec. 9, 1985 | Bryan Adams' "Reckless" LP became the first Canadian recording to sell over one million in Canada. |
| 1985 | Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" became the first CD to notch up one million sales. |
| March 4, 1986 | The 1500th weekly CHUM chart was printed in Toronto, Ontario. The radio station hit playlist had been distributed in Canadian record shops for almost three decades. |
| May 25, 1986 | Voices Of America, 6 million Americans joined hands from Los Angeles to New York City in an effort to help fight hunger and homelessness in America. |
| 1986 | Madonna's "True Blue" LP topped the charts in 28 countries. |
| 1986 | The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inducted its first honourees with a dinner in New York City. |
| 1986 | Turner Broadcasting begins colourizing classic black & white films to the chagrin of the film industry. |
| 1986 | Evangelist Jim Brown of The First Church Of The Nazarene in Ironton, Ohio lead 75 teens in a mass burning of records containing the theme of TV's "Mr. Ed" claiming the tune featured Satanic messages. |
| Dec. 12, 1987 | The first picture CD's were released. The artists were George Michael and Michael Jackson. |
| 1987 | The Beatles albums were released on compact disc. |
| 1987 | The CBS Records Group was sold to Sony Corp. for $2 billion. |
| 1987 | The first DAT (Digital Audio Tape) is launched in Japan offering CD-quality home recording to consumers. |
| June 11, 1988 | At Wembley Stadium in London, England, an 11 hour "Free Nelson Mandela" concert celebrated the birthday of the jailed African National Congress leader. Artists taking part included Eurythmics, Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston. |
| Aug., 1988 | At a Guns 'N' Roses concert at The Castle Donington Festival in England, 2 fans were crushed to death. |
| 1989 | The Stax building was demolished. |
| The 1990's | The music industry was rocked by lip sync scandals. Several artists were exposed as frauds when it was discovered that ghost singers had been used in the studio. Among those charged was Milli Vanilli, a vocal duo which was asked to return their Grammy Award after it was revealed that they did not sing on their own album. |
| The 1990's | Many of our major pop artists including Freddie Mercury and Peter Allen became victims of AIDS. |
| Jan. 13, 1990 | Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical, "Cats" established a new Japanese record with 1590 performances in Tokyo. |
| Oct. 30, 1990 | The "Red, Hot & Blue" album is released to raise money for AIDS. Artists include U2 and k.d. lang and features songs by Cole Porter. |
| Dec. 8, 1990 | MCA Records was sold to the Japanese corporation, Matsushita for $3.1 billion. |
| Dec., 1990 | The 45 r.p.m. record was defunct and new cassette singles were marketed with little success. |
| 1990 | Paul McCartney attracted the largest attendance to date for a concert by a single-billed artist. The event took place at Maracana Stadium in Rio and attracted 184,368 fans. |
| Jan., 1991 | The vinyl album was discontinued except for special pressings, and big singles were the only vinyl products left on the market. |
| March, 1991 | Voices That Care, a non military recording was released in support of the troops in the Desert Storm campaign. It was arranged and organized by David Foster. |
| May 24, 1991 | Billboard Magazine developed a new method of tabulating disc and tape sales using the Sound Scan Tallying Company. Initially, 9,000 targeted outlets began tabulating sales automatically at the cash register. The charts changed dramatically, showing a considerable increase in the sale of country music. Previously, record chains had been surveyed. |
| June, 1991 | Canadian Bryan Adams went to #1 for 7 weeks on the Billboard charts with "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" from the movie, "Robin Hood, Prince Of Thieves." The recording became the #1 single in 27 countries and remained in the #1 spot for an unprecedented 16 weeks in the UK. It was entered in The Guinness Book Of World Records. |
| 1991 | Jane's Addiction lead singer Perry Farrell put together the first Lollapalooza tour which featured alternative acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction, Siouxie And The Banshees and Ice-T. |
| 1991 | Guns 'N' Roses began their record-breaking world tour which had them playing 23 nations over a 30 month period, earning each member $15 million. |
| 1991 | The Robert Johnson Memorial was dedicated at a church in Mississippi courtesy of a $17,000 donation by Columbia. |
| 1992 | Sales of country music albums topped the $700 million mark. |
| 1992 | The minidisc and digital compact cassettes debuted. |
| 1992 | The Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert celebration was held at Madison Square Garden in New York. |
| Jan., 1993 | An Ice Cube concert at Seattle's Paramount Theatre ended in a skirmish between rival gangs and a gun battle outside the venue resulted in 12 people being injured. |
| July 18, 1993 | Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" became the highest grossing film to date. |
| 1993 | The 6 X 12" CD cardboard longbox was banned in the U.S. |
| 1993 | Garth Brooks had become the most popular male vocalist in the world, proving once and for all that country music was definitely cool. |
| 1993 | Alternative rock had gone mainstream and mainstream rock had literally become the alternative. |
| Aug. 12-14, 1994 | The 25th anniversary of the legendary Woodstock Festival was celebrated at Saugerties, N.Y. with a concert featuring Alice In Chains, Joe Cocker, Blind Melon, Aerosmith, Arrested Development, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Crosby Stills & Nash, Melissa Etheridge, Nine Inch Nails, Santana, The Band, Cypress Hill, Johnny Cash, Spin Doctors, The Neville Brothers, Traffic, Bob Dylan, Metallica and Sisters Of Mercy. |
| May, 1994 | Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson, later filing for divorce in Jan., 1996. |
| 1994 | Record mogul David Geffen, director Steven Spielberg and former Disney executive formed Dreamworks SKG, the first major Hollywood studio in 55 years. |
| Aug., 1995 | The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame opened in Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 1995 | The U.S. postal service issued stamps honouring country music legends The Carter Family, Bob Wills, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. |
| Oct. 6, 1996 | The first GLAMA's (Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards) were presented at Webster Hall in New York City. |
| 1996 | Atlanta's Country Fest attracted over a quarter of a million fans. |
| 1996 | The Macarena became the hottest new dance craze, fueled by the recording of the song, "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. |
| 1996 | Garth Brooks became the best selling solo artist in the history of music, second only to The Beatles with album sales exceeding the 60 million mark. |
| Summer, 1997 | Sarah McLachlan organized "Lilith Fair," a 37 date tour featuring the cream of contemporary female recording artists including Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple and Jewel. |
| Aug. 7, 1997 | A free Garth Brooks concert featuring guest Billy Joel, held in the North Meadow of Central Park in New York City attracted an estimated audience of between 250,000 and 750,000. |
| Aug. 31, 1997 | Princess Diana died in a car crash, trying to outrun the paparazzi. A stunned showbusiness community retaliated. |
| Sept. 12, 1997 | Elton John's reworking of "Candle In The Wind (Goodbye England's Rose)," the tribute he sang at the funeral of Princess Diana, went on sale as a single with proceeds going to The Princess Diana Memorial Fund. It became the biggest selling single to date, selling 31.5 million copies in 8 wks., breaking the record previously held by Bing Crosby's "White Christmas." |
| 1997 | Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. |
| 1997 | Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album and "The Best Of The Eagles" album tied for top LP sales position. Both had sold 24 million copies worldwide. |
| 1997 | Jazz artist Wynton Marsalis won The Pulitzer Prize for his "Blood On The Fields." |
| 1997 | Female recording artists dominated the charts worldwide. |
| 1998 | The industry was dominated by the "Titanic" motion picture soundtrack featuring Celine Dion's mammoth hit, "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic)." |
| 1998 | Bob Dylan and his son Jakob (leader of The Wallflowers) were the first father and son to win individual Grammys in the same year. |
| Early, 1999 | Cher's electronic dance recording, "Believe" became the biggest British single of all time and the album gave her a well deserved international comeback. |
| July 23-25, 1999 | The 30th anniversary celebration of the landmark 1969 rock festival ended in rape, looting and mob violence. Artists in attendance included Creed, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow. |
| Summer, 1999 | Latino artist Ricky Martin's monster hit, "Livin' La Vida Loca," his first English language recording paved the way for many other Latino stars. |
| Dec. 31, 1999 | The end of the decade was celebrated worldwide with fireworks and numerous concerts including Las Vegas appearances by superstars such as Tina Turner, Elton John, Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand. |
| April, 2000 | 2.4 million copies of American vocal group N Sync's album, "No Strings Attatched" during the week following its March 27 release made it the fastest selling album to date. |
| April, 2000 | The Rock And Soul Museum was opened in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| 2000 | Time Magazine chose "Strange Fruit" as the song of the century. |
| June 30, 2000 | 9 fans were killed during Pearl Jam's set at a festival in Roskilde, Denmark. The victims suffocated when 50,000 surged forward. |
| Sept. 13, 2000 | The first Latin Grammy Awards Show was held. |
| Dec., 2000 | Paul McCartney was listed as the world's richest pop star with over 711 million dollars. |
| Jan., 2001 | The Beatles' "1's" album stayed at #1 for 7 wks. |
| March, 2001 | The music industry magazine, "The Record" folded after 2 decades. |
| May, 2001 | After 44 years, 1050 CHUM a.m. radio in Toronto, Ontario ceased its music format and became a sports station. |
| July, 2001 | Singer Alanis Morissette sparked controversy when she stated that because of record company greed, artists have little or no control over their material. She also stated that well established artists are unable to release new product because of the glut of teen pop on the market. |
| Sept. 11, 2001 | Terrorists attacked The World Trade Centre in New York City, completely demolishing the building, damaged The Pentagon and caused a plane crash in Pennsylvania. The tragedy sparked a war on terrorism worldwide. Broadway shut down, many movie shoots were discontinued, the fall TV schedule was temporarily cancelled and entertainers committed themselves to benefit work. |
| Sept. 21, 2001 | A TV special called "America: A Tribute To Heroes" aired simultaneously on all the major networks as a benefit for the victims of the Sept. 11th tragedy. Stars taking part included Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty, Mariah Carey, U2, Neil Young and Celine Dion. |
| Sept. 22, 2001 | "A Prayer For America" was held at Yankee Stadium in New York City. Artists taking part included Placido Domingo, Bette Midler and Lee Greenwood. It was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. |
| Oct. 20, 2001 | Paul McCartney organized The Concert For New York at Madison Square Garden as a salute to American firefighters at Ground Zero. Artists taking part included The Who, Elton John, Billy Joel, Mick Jagger and Macy Gray. McCartney introduced his anthem, "Freedom." |
NOTE: As of 1997, both "Thriller" and "The Best Of The Eagles" had tied for top sales worldwide of 24 million copies each.