Pick a Day

Music History Events: Awards and Honors

July 20, 1965 Frank Sinatra appears at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where he leaves his handprints in the cement outside.

June 1, 1965 Art Garfunkel graduates from Columbia University in New York.

February 17, 1965 "Tennessee Waltz" is declared the eponymous state's official song.

March 28, 1964 The Beatles become the first Rock Stars displayed in Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. They later use their wax versions on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

March 21, 1964 Dean Martin leaves his handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

March 19, 1964 The British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the "Mr. Wilson" in the Beatles song "Taxman," presents the group with the Show Business Personalities of 1963 award at the Variety Club of Great Britain Annual Show Business Awards.

December 30, 1963 The Beatles win Group and Record Of The Year ("She Loves You") in British music newspaper New Musical Express' annual year-end poll.

December 27, 1963 London's Sunday Times names Paul McCartney and John Lennon the Outstanding Composers of 1963.

June 12, 1963 Brenda Lee graduates from the showbiz-friendly high school Hollywood Professional, having already earned 12 Top 10 records.

May 15, 1963 At the fifth Annual Grammy Awards, The First Family, an album of comedy bits that pokes fun at President John F. Kennedy and his family, wins Album Of The Year, the only time a comedy or spoken-word album has ever won that award. Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" takes Record of the Year, Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" gets Best R&B Recording, and Bent Fabric's instrumental "Alley Cat" takes Best Rock and Roll Record.

April 8, 1963 Patty Duke wins the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for The Miracle Worker.

November 30, 1962 For the first time, The Beatles make the "favourite group" list in the New Musical Express' reader's poll.

May 29, 1962 Henry Mancini's "Moon River" wins a Grammy for Record of the Year, and Judy Garland's Judy at Carnegie Hall wins a Grammy for Album of the Year.

May 27, 1962 At the Grammy Awards in New York, Andy Williams' "Moon River" from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's is named both Record and Song of the Year.

April 9, 1962 Henry Mancini wins the Best Original Song Academy Award for "Moon River" from Breakfast At Tiffany's.

May 31, 1961 Chuck Berry opens the Berryland amusement park, complete with guitar-shaped swimming pool, in Wentzville, Missouri, outside of St. Louis.

April 13, 1961 At the third annual Grammy Awards, the comedy album The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart wins Album Of The Year, beating out albums by Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte and Nat King Cole. The Grammys, which have yet to introduce a rock category, choose another comedy album for the award two years later: The First Family by Vaughn Meader.

April 12, 1961 Ray Charles is the big winner at the third annual Grammy Awards, winning four trophies, including the award for Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."

April 4, 1961 Former teen idol Fabian graduates from Philadelphia's South Side High.

June 6, 1960 The RIAA gives Bing Crosby a special platinum record to signify career sales of 200 million records, many of them "White Christmas."

July 8, 1958 The RIAA gives its first ever Gold album to the Oklahoma! soundtrack for $1 million in sales. The Gold standard for albums is changed in 1975 to reflect sales of over 500,000.

October 4, 1957 Elvis Presley comes in second to Pat Boone in the NME music poll.

March 27, 1957 "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera)" from the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

December 5, 1955 The BMI Annual Awards in New York City score big for R&B, with rhythm and blues songs winning a record eleven awards.

November 12, 1955 Fats Domino is named the favorite Rhythm & Blues artist in Billboard's annual DJ's Poll.

November 12, 1955 Chuck Berry is named the most promising Rhythm & Blues artist in Billboard's annual DJ's Poll.

July 15, 1952 Eight-year-old prodigy Gladys Knight appears on the TV show Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, a precursor to shows like Star Search and American Idol. She wins the top prize of $2,000 for her performance of Nat King Cole's "Too Young."

December 23, 1947 Three scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey demonstrate the transistor, which leads to the invention of small, portable "transistor" radios. The scientists win the 1956 Nobel Prize for their work.

June 12, 2022 Jennifer Hudson goes EGOT with a Tony win for A Strange Loop. She's a producer on the show, which takes the award for Best New Musical. Hudson got her Oscar in 2007 (Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls), her Grammy in 2008 (Best R&B Album), and her Emmy in 2021 (Interactive Achievement for work on Baba Yaga).

December 6, 2021 Drake, a longtime critic of the Grammy Awards, turns down his two nominations, joining The Weeknd in boycotting the awards. Drake feels he's being pigeonholed into hip-hop categories when he's really a pop artist; The Weeknd has beef because he wasn't nominated the previous year for his album After Hours or song "Blinding Lights."