1968: Legendary rock promoter, Bill Graham opens an East Coast version of his San Francisco concert venue, the Fillmore Ballroom. Appropriately dubbed Fillmore East and located in New York City’s East Village, the hall’s first show is headlined by Big Brother & the Holding Company, Albert King and Tim Buckley.

By the way, the photo of Bill on opening night was snapped by aspiring rock photographer Linda Eastman (soon to become Linda McCartney).

1966: Brian Wilson releases his first ever solo recording, the single “Caroline No.” When the Pet Sounds album is released two months later, the recording appears on the album, but now is credited to Brian’s band, The Beach Boys.

1957: It’s the Canadian Invasion! No, seriously. It was on this day that a rock band from Canada became the first from the Great White North to score a #1 hit on the U.S. charts. The group was the Diamonds and their hit was “Little Darlin’.”

1951: Ever think that Ike Turner just may have invented rock & roll? It was on this day that Ike and his band, recording under the name Jackie Brenston and His Kings of Rhythm, recorded “Rocket 88” for Sam Phillips at his Memphis Recording Service (the same place Sam would name Sun Studios a few year later).

That record is now considered by many scholars to be the first rock & roll record.

1966: A London newspaper The Evening Standard publishes an interview with John Lennon in which he infamously says about the Beatles: “We're more popular than Jesus.”

The remark goes unnoticed until it is reprinted in the American teen magazine Datebook four months later. Massive anti-Beatle protests would break out, mainly across the Bible Belt, including bonfires of Beatles records.

Lennon later apologizes and the Beatles survive the controversy.

1957: Catholic Cardinal Stritch of Chicago bans rock & roll from all Catholic high schools, thereby ensuring the wild popularity of rock music among Catholic students.

1964: The Beatles begin filming their first motion picture, A Hard Day’s Night. The first scenes are the ones shot at London’s Paddington Station that appear near the beginning of the film.

That means this is also the day that George Harrison first meets teenage model/actress Patti Boyd, his future wife and Eric Clapton’s future obsession (aka “Layla”).

1970: The Doors hold an infamous concert at the Coconut Grove Auditorium in Miami, Florida. Lead singer and resident bad boy, Jim Morrison is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself to the crowd. He’s is not formally arraigned with a mug shot until September of the same year.

Although obviously drunk and verbally abusive to the crowd, Morrison is posthumously cleared of the indecent exposure charge during an appeals process that dragged on past the singer’s death in 1971.

1970: From our Strange But True Department: On this day, Led Zeppelin was forced to change their name before playing a live gig. The band was touring Denmark and the ancestors of the actual Ferdinand von Zeppelin complained. So, Jimmy Page and the lads played the concert under the name “The Nobs.”

1977: One of the most infamous rock star drug busts took place on this day. Keith Richards is awakened from a sound sleep in his room at the Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto by Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He is charged with possession of cocaine, heroin and drug paraphernalia. Bail is set at $25,000.