1964: In the face of the BBC’s continued reluctance to play much rock music, England’s first 24 hour a day “pirate station” begins broadcasting. Radio Caroline signs on from a former Danish ferry, the Federicia, anchored off shore in the North Sea.

The station adopts the tone (and even the same jingles) that were popular in the United States.

1979: Eric Clapton finally gets “Layla.” It was on this day that the guitarist married Pattie Boyd, ex-wife of his best friend George Harrison in a ceremony in Tucson, Arizona.

Harrison attends the wedding as do Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney.

Eric and Pattie would divorce 9 years later.

On this day, recording studios were busy. Here’s who was recording what:

1957: Ricky Nelson “I’m Walkin’”

1958: Eddie Cochran “Summertime Blues”

1964: Chuck Berry “No Particular Place to Go”

1974: Dionne Warwick & the Spinners “Then Came You”

Happy Birthday to two legendary figures in pop music:

1942: Aretha Franklin

1947: Elton John

1962: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards play their first gig in Ealing, England as part of a rock band. The band calls themselves (we are not making this up) Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. (Insert your own smutty joke here.)

1955: A “daring” Hollywood expose of the surging problem of juvenile delinquency, The Blackboard Jungle opens in movie theaters across the U.S.A. A pretty good film featuring Glenn Ford and a very young Sidney Poitier gains more notoriety for the music playing behind the opening titles.

Bill Haley & the Comets‘ “Rock Around the Clock” had been released on its own a year earlier, but hadn’t really attracted much airplay. The movie’s popularity sends “Rock Around the Clock” to the top of the charts, kicking off the rock ‘n’ roll era in earnest and establishing a link between Hollywood and the sales of rock music that continues to this day.

1967: The Who perform live for the first time in America. The boys play threes shows in one day at the Paramount Theater in New York City.

The band was not headlining the venue. They were only the opening act for Herman’s Hermits.

Many of the young girls there to see Peter Noone’s group were understandably a little startled by the Who’s much more flamboyant stage act (including the destruction of their instruments at the close of the show).

1952: What many consider the very first rock & roll concert took place on this day in Cleveland. Legendary DJ Alan Freed stages his Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Arena. Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers are the featured attractions.

The event draws 20,000 fans to a 10,000 seat venue causing police to shut down the show early. That touches off the first rock concert near-riot as well.

1969: In a ceremony at the Rock of Gibraltar in Spain, John Lennon marries Yoko Ono.

He would later commemorate the event in the lyrics of the Beatles’ song “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”

1966: The final episode of The Donna Reed Show airs on ABC-TV. The episode features Lesley Gore, playing a pop singer named Lesley Gore.