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THE FOLLOWING EVENTS TOOK PLACE ON AUGUST 16
1957--Buddy Holly and the Crickets play the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and are booed (it takes three days to win the audiences over). The group was booked on a race music tour package because the promoter thought they were black. Also on the bill were The G-Clefs, whose Ted Scott remembered, “People were saying, ‘What is this?’ and I think Buddy and his group were shaken by playing in a black theater in a black territory. But he was a different kind of white act; he did a lot of jumping around and really put on a good show.”
1961--The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club -- a night performance.
1962--Brian Epstein summons Pete Best to his NEMS Whitechapel shop for an 11:00 a.m. meeting. Brian tells Pete that the other Beatles want him out of the group, and that he is being replaced. Amazingly, Epstein asks Pete to perform with The Beatles that night; stunned by the news he has just received, Pete agrees. Upon further thought, and with a clearer head, Pete later decides against appearing, and he does not show up for the night’s performance. A lot of the Beatles fans are partial to Pete, who is their favorite. For a few days, Brian Epstein needs protection to walk down Mathew Street, and his new automobile is scratched. As much as Pete’s abrupt dismissal seems in hindsight to have been a smart move for the Beatles, the timing and the cruel way in which it was done are troubling indeed.
1962--The Beatles perform at Riverpark Ballroom, Chester, Cheshire. Pete Best, who had been told earlier in the day that he was being booted out of The Beatles, does not show up. Although he had told Brian Epstein that he would perform with The Beatles for this appearance, he understandably changed his mind after he’d had some time to think about it. Drummer Johnny Hutchinson of The Big Three fills in the temporary vacancy.
1963--The Beatles perform two shows at the Odeon Cinema in Llandudno, Caernarvonshire.
1964--The Beatles perform at the Opera House in Blackpool. One of the support acts is The High Numbers, who will later change their name to The Who.
1966--The Beatles, touring the US for the final time, perform a concert at John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lightning flashes throughout the open-air concert, but the rain holds off until the show is over.
1968--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Recording While My Guitar Gently Weeps, taking the song from its early acoustic version into an electric version. Fourteen takes are recorded.
1968--The Apple label first new artist release: Mary Hopkin, with Those Were The Days.
1969--The Who and Janis Joplin perform at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. During The Who’s set, Abbie Hoffman leaps onstage to protest something or other, but Pete Townshend is having none of it. He clobbers the activist with his electric guitar. Townshend later explains he had no idea who Abbie Hoffman was. This was the second day of the historic festival.
1977--Elvis Presley is found dead at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Presley died at age 42 from heart failure brought on by abuse of prescribed drugs. He was rushed from Graceland to Baptist Memorial Hospital, but doctors’ efforts to revive him were fruitless and he was pronounced dead (of coronary arrhythmia) at 3:30 p.m. Thousands of mourning fans kept a vigil outside Graceland, the home of the King of Rock and Roll, for three days before his burial. Thousands more lined the streets of Presley’s adopted hometown on the day of his funeral. The city, the nation, and the world were in shock over his passing. Even to this day, some say that Elvis didn’t die; he just wanted to get away from it all. Fans from all over have reported sightings of Elvis. Presley is buried at Graceland, which is now a major tourist attraction.
1987--Thousands of people prayed and meditated for universal peace, as the much-publicized “Harmonic Convergence,” the exact alignment of planets in the solar system, took place.
For more day-by-day history go to HistoryUnlimited.net
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