1907 Connee Boswell (of the '30s jazz trio The Boswell Sisters) is born in Kansas City, Missouri.
1863 Gussie Davis, the first popular black Tin Pan Alley composer, is born in Dayton, Ohio.
1721 Johann Sebastian Bach marries Anna Magdalena Wilcken.
1585 Choral composer Thomas Tallis dies.
1994Adam Sandler performs "The Chanukah Song" on the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, enlightening us to the fact that Harrison Ford, Paul Newman and David Lee Roth (among many others) are, in fact, Jewish. Released as a single the following year, the song reaches #10 US and becomes a seasonal favorite.
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2015 Scott Weiland dies at age 48 when he suffers cardiac arrest on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota, where his band The Wildabouts are scheduled to perform.More
1990 Madonna appears on the news program Nightline, where she debuts her video for "Justify My Love," which MTV has refused to play. As the lascivious clip plays, Madonna provides commentary, answering questions from host Forrest Sawyer.More
1985 The day after taking a loss to the Miami Dolphins that keeps them from going undefeated, 10 members of the Chicago Bears record the "Super Bowl Shuffle," a rap tune where they each drop a verse about their talents. The video permeates MTV and the song spreads well beyond Chicago to become a hit single and Gold record.More
1979 Before The Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, 11 people are trampled to death and dozens are injured in a rush to enter the arena. Like many concerts of the day, there are no reserved seats, a practice known as "festival seating." The resulting controversy (and lawsuits) force promoters to rethink the practice.More
1968 A TV special simply called Elvis airs on NBC, drawing a huge audience and revitalizing the career of Elvis Presley. Footage from two June concerts makes up most of the special, which pays tribute to Bobby Kennedy with the closing number, "If I Can Dream."
1964 The animated TV special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer debuts on CBS, with Burl Ives as the voice of Sam the Snowman. The special is based on the 1949 song, which has become a perennial favorite.More
1947 Patti Page records her first hit single, "Confess." Unable to find background singers due to a strike, Mercury Records sound engineer Bill Putnam overdubs Page's own vocals. It's the first-ever recording with overdubbed vocals.
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