An unusually sad day for rock fans. On this day, we lost:

1960: Eddie Cochran

1983: Felix Pappalardi (Mountain)

1998: Linda McCartney

2008: Danny Federici (E Street Band)

1970: Jefferson Airplane front man Marty Balin is busted in a hotel room in Bloomington , Minnesota, after the police find him smoking marijuana and engaging in sexual activity with teenage girls. In other words, living the rock & roll dream.

1964: Taking a break from filming their first movie, given the working title Beatlemania!, the Beatles are relaxing when Ringo remarks that it really has been “a hard day’s night.” John Lennon immediately begins scribbling some lyrics on the back of a greeting card and by the next morning has a new song and the film has a new title: “A Hard Day’s Night.”

1960: Inspired by the actual induction of Elvis Presley into the army, the musical Bye Bye Birdie opens on Broadway. It would go on to run 607 performances and win a Tony award as Best Musical.

When Hollywood transfers it to the screen in 1963, they bring along Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde from the Broadway cast, but the material is reshaped to be more of a vehicle for young starlet Ann-Margaret.

1967: The Rolling Stones play their first gig behind the Iron Curtain. The band performs at a small concert venue in Warsaw, Poland. The location is quickly overrun by fans without tickets, prompting the police to respond with tear gas.

So a Soviet bloc country got its first taste of capitalist rock & roll and a capitalist rock & roll riot. Progress!

1966: In one of the creepiest coincidences in rock, Jan Berry of Jan & Dean crashes his Corvette near a stretch of L.A. road known as “Deadman’s Curve,” also immortalized in song by the duo just one year before.

Berry will require 4 years of therapy before he learns how to talk again and nearly a decade of therapy before he can perform again.

1970: Founding member Peter Green announces his intention to leave Fleetwood Mac following the completion of their current European tour

1957: To impress a girl he’s dating, Ricky Nelson performs a cover of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin’” on his family’s weekly television show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Ricky’s version sells half a million copies over the next seven days and launches one of early rock’s most successful careers.

Today, Ricky Nelson is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

1974: Bruce Springsteen meets rock critic Jon Landau for the first time. Landau was one of Springsteen’s early champions, having dubbed him “the future of rock & roll” in a review. Eventually, Landau would become Springsteen’s manager, a position he occupies to this day.

1967: NBC airs Petula Clark’s first and only TV special, Petula. During her duet with Harry Belafonte, she spontaneously reaches out and touches him on his arm. Sponsor Chrysler Motors wants the moment cut from the show, fearing a backlash from Southern viewers. Clark refuses and the show airs with the touch intact, becoming the first interracial contact to air on American television.

The nation, somehow, endures the shock. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)