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Featured Events
2016Mamma Mia, here we go again! The Swedish pop quartet ABBA reunites for the first time in eight years to celebrate Mamma Mia! The Party, a restaurant inspired by the long-running musical.More
2012Etta James dies at age 73 of leukemia complications.More
2006The TV movie High School Musical premieres on the Disney Channel, creating a teen and tween sensation and the biggest album of 2006.More
1993At the Triangle Ball, the first gay and lesbian inaugural ball, Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang and Janis Ian come out publicly, declaring that they are gay and in same-sex relationships.More
1990After being revived by a Washington DJ, "The Electric Boogie" by Jamaican singer Marcia Griffiths peaks at #51 on the Billboard Hot 100, as the "Electric Slide" line dance craze sweeps the nation.More
1986After years of campaigning to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday, Stevie Wonder commemorates the occasion with a star-studded concert celebration in Washington, D.C.More
1977Jimmy Buffett releases his seventh studio album, Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes, which features his signature song "Margaritaville." Peaking at #8, the tropical-themed track remains his highest entry on the Billboard Hot 100.More
1962Dick Dale's guitar instrumental "Let's Go Trippin'" hits #60, becoming the first Surf Rock song to chart. Many groups, including The Beach Boys, subsequently cover the song.More
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In Music History
2019Marking the 37th anniversary of that time he bit the head off a bat, Ozzy Osbourne's official store releases a plush bat with a detachable head.More
2015Edgar Froese (drummer for Tangerine Dream) dies of a pulmonary embolism at age 70 in Austria.
2013Bob Engemann (of The Lettermen) dies of complications from heart bypass surgery at age 77.
2011Appearing on the Bravo show Watch What Happens Live, Tiffany talks about dating Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block in the '80s, and inadvertently outs him, saying, "He became gay later."More
2009David "Fathead" Newman, a jazz and R&B saxophonist who played alongside Ray Charles, dies at age 75 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
2009Bon Iver releases Blood Bank, a four-track EP and follow up to the hugely-successful For Emma, Forever Ago. The song "Woods," which features on the EP, will go on to be sampled by Kanye West on his track "Lost in The World."
2009Kid Rock, Kanye West and Fall Out Boy perform at President Barack Obama's inauguration, playing the Youth Ball, which is broadcast live on MTV. Obama headlines, making a speech where he hypes the crowd with his "Yes We Can" slogan. Rock and West later throw their support to the next president: Obama's ideological opposite, Donald Trump.
2001With the debut Lifehouse album climbing the charts, lead singer Jason Wade marries his longtime girlfriend, Braeden.
1999Bill Albaugh (drummer for the psychedelic pop group The Lemon Pipers) dies at age 53.
1998Dawson's Creek, a coming-of-age drama following a group of North Carolina teens, debuts on The WB with Paula Cole's hit "I Don't Want To Wait" as its theme song.More
1998Bob McBride (lead singer for Lighthouse) dies of heart failure at age 51.
1998With the release of their debut single, "I Want You Back," *NSYNC emerges as a rival to Backstreet Boys, who are taking America by storm.
1997French electronic duo Daft Punk release their debut album, Homework in the UK (it is released in America on March 25). The record is a big hit in Europe but only reaches #150 in the USA. Both members, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, are music producers who use recording technology to combine house music with synthpop.
1996Tori Amos makes her Saturday Night Live debut, performing "Caught A Lite Sneeze" and "Hey Jupiter" from her third album, Boys For Pele.
1988The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, Bob Dylan, and The Supremes are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the third class. Mike Love of The Beach Boys gives a Ricky Gervais-at-the-Golden Globes-style speech, insulting many in attendance. Diana Ross skips the ceremony over a spat with fellow Supreme Mary Wilson.
Ozzy Osbourne Bites The Head Off Of Bat
1982While performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa, Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat.
After infamously biting the heads off two live doves during a meeting with record executives one year prior, Osbourne already has a reputation as a nibbler of repulsive things. In this particular case, however, he isn't looking to cause any controversy. Plastic bats have been tossed onstage at Osbourne's shows many times, and when Obsourne sees another fly up there on this night, he assumes it, too, is fake. He is wrong. Osbourne bites the animal's head clean off. He's rushed to the hospital for rabies shots. Osbourne insists the bat was not only alive but also bit him - Rolling Stone's report of the event also claims the animal was alive. Years later, however, Mark Neal tells the Des Moines Register that he was 17 years old at that concert, and was the one who threw the bat onstage. According to Neal, the animal was quite dead when he did so - close to rancid, in fact. Alive or dead, the bat becomes an intrinsic piece of Osbourne's legacy. So much so that the rocker later complains that the continual reminder of the story by press and fans alike has chased and annoyed him all his life. None of this prevents him from profiting off of the spectacle of course. On the anniversary of the event 37 years later, Obsourne's official store sells toy bats with removable heads in celebration of the occasion.
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