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1965 - The Grateful Dead performed their first ever concert, a gig at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium.

1967 - The Steve Miller Blues Band inked a deal with Capitol Records for the then-unfathomable sum of $750,000. The band ultimately dropped the "Blues" from its name.

1967 - Otis Redding's tour plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake, killing the singer at the ripe age of 26 along with his tour band, the "Bar-Kays."

1968 - John Lennon made his debut solo appearance on TV.

1971 - Frank Zappa was shoved off a London stage by a fan's jealous boyfriend. The musician suffered a broken leg and ankle and fractured skull, and consequently spent months recovering in a wheelchair.

1976 - Paul McCartney released Wings over America.

1991 - Alan Freed earned a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The famous DJ was the first to use the phrase "Rock & Roll."

1998 - Bruce Springsteen emerged victorious from a 2 1/2-year legal battle with a pair of British companies who sought to release 19 previously unreleased songs from early in his career.

Chris Potter & Justin Starling for Cumulus Media © 2012

Image used with permission by Hulton Archive.