1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" at RCA Studios, in NYC. (Take 31 was the released version.) The single sold over 10 million copies globally, became his best-selling song and topped the charts for 11 weeks, a record that stood for 36 years.
1962 - Jimi Hendrix is honorably discharged from the 101st Airborne Paratroopers, after breaking his ankle during his 26th and final parachute jump.
On this same date, in 1969, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell quit The Jimi Hendrix Experience after completing the three-day Denver Pop Festival. Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell would later team up with bassist Billy Cox to form the short-lived Gypsy Sun and Rainbows.
Also on this day: The Beatles (except John Lennon, who was hospitalized in Golspie, Scotland, following a car accident the previous day) work on the tracks "Her Majesty" and "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" for the Abbey Road album.
1971 - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon play their first gig as Queen at Surrey College, in England.
1979 - Sony introduces the Walkman, the first portable audio cassette player. Over the next 30 years they sold over 385 million Walkmans in cassette, CD, mini-disc and digital file versions, and were the market leaders until the arrival of Apple's iPod and other new digital devices.
1988 - Michael Jackson becomes the first artist to have five #1 singles from one album when "Dirty Diana" goes to the top of the charts. The other four chart-toppers from the Bad album were the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Man in the Mirror".
1991 - Axl Rose causes a riot to break out during a Guns N' Roses gig after leaping into the crowd to remove a camera from a fan at the Riverpoint Amphitheatre, in Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis. Over 50 people were injured and 15 fans were arrested.
2001 - Liverpool Airport is renamed John Lennon Airport. The airport's slogan "Above Us Only Sky" is from his song "Imagine".
2005 - The G8 concerts, organized ahead of the G8 summit to put pressure on political leaders to tackle poverty in Africa, are held in 10 cities, including London, Philadelphia, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Rome and Moscow, with participating artists playing to hundreds of thousands of people. Among the performers: Pink Floyd, The Who, Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Sting, The Scissor Sisters, Keane, Paul McCartney, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Bjork and Green Day.
2008 - The gravestone of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis is stolen. Police said his memorial stone was taken from where he is buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. The gravestone had the inscription "Ian Curtis 18-5-80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart".
2015 - Buddy Holly's widow, Maria Elena Holly, announces she has entrusted the publishing rights to her late husband's influential catalog to BMG. The company was now authorized to administer royalties worldwide of nearly all of Buddy Holly's recordings.
Today's Birthdays include...longtime Springsteen keyboardist Roy Bittan (71); Johnny Colla, guitarist and saxophonist for Huey Lewis and the News (68); a trio of bass players: Boomtown Rats' Pete Briquette (66), Mike Anker of The Blow Monkeys (63), Transvision Vamp's Dave Parsons (54); and rapper Monie Love (50).
