This Day in Rock – January 31

Posted By: January 31, 2019 @ 4:51 pm Afternoons

Join Gunner as he goes over all the important Rock dates in history weekdays at 3:50. Relive all the chart-topping moments, milestones, bad breakups and first times again.

There will be no hall pass today. Here’s what happened today in Rock N’ Roll.

1919 Baseball player Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s color line when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, is born.
1923 Novelist Norman Mailer (The Executioner’s Song) is born. He dies in 2007.
1928 Scotch Tape is first marketed by the 3M Company.
1945 During World War II, 24-year-old private Eddie Slovik becomes the first American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War.
1964 Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman is born. He dies in May 2013.
1970 Kiss singer-drummer Peter Criss marries Lydia Di Leonardo, who is said to have been the inspiration for “Beth.” They later divorce.
1988 The Beastie Boys deny rumors of a split.
1990 The first McDonalds opens in Moscow.
1995 The Alice In Chains album Dirt is certified triple platinum.
1995 Black Sabbath‘s 1970 album Paranoid is certified quadruple platinum.
1997 The “Special Edition” of Star Wars is released in theaters and grosses $35.9 million in its opening weekend, a record for January.
1998 The Presidents Of The United States Of America play their last show — until their 2003 reunion — at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. The show benefits the Chicken Soup Brigade, which provides food and services to Seattle residents with HIV/AIDS.
1999 Kiss lip-syncs “Rock And Roll All Nite” as part of the Super Bowl pregame festivities.
2000 Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker is suspended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for making disparaging remarks about foreigners, gays, minorities, and others in a Sports Illustrated interview.
2000 The Smashing Pumpkins kick off a series of in-store performances and autograph sessions in Lawrence, Kansas, to promote their latest album, MACHINA/The Machines Of God.
2001 An 18-year-old girl who suffered a heart attack while being crushed in a crowd at a Limp Bizkit show in Australia dies after five days in the hospital.
2001 Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl announces his underground metal side project, Probot, although the album won’t be released for another three years.
2002 Hoobastank‘s self-titled debut album is certified gold.
2002 R.E.M. and Jewel mark the 20th anniversary of AIDS and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis with performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
2004 Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry join host Toby Keith, Sammy Hagar, Willie Nelson, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and others on a special live edition of the CMT cable network’s Crossroads series.
2004 Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson falls head-first from a stage platform during a show at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Dickinson finishes the show, though moving noticeably slower.
2005 The initial lineup of the sixth annual Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival is revealed, featuring Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Weezer, the Chemical Brothers, Snow Patrol, Tegan & Sara, Keane, Prodigy, and others.
2006 White Stripes fans get to hear music from frontman Jack White‘s new band the Raconteurs for the first time as the group posts two songs at their official web site.
2007 The Shins debut on the Billboard 200 album chart at Number Two, selling 118,000 copies in its first week in stores. The Shins’ previous highest chart outing was Number 86, while its label, Sub Pop Records, never had a record go higher than Number 79.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Marcus Mumford (singer, Mumford & Sons, husband of actress Carey Mulligan) (32)
John Lydon (frontman, the Sex Pistols; also known as Johnny Rotten) (63)
Justin Timberlake (pop singer, actor, The Social Network, In Time) (38)
Jason Cooper (drummer, the Cure) (52)
Kerry Washington (actress, Ray, The Last King of Scotland, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Fantastic Four, Lakeview Terrace, Django Unchained, Scandal) (42)
Portia de Rossi (actress, Ally McBeal) (46)
Minnie Driver (actress, Grosse Pointe Blank, Good Will Hunting) (49)
Anthony LaPaglia (actor, Without A Trace) (60)
Kelly Lynch (actress, Cocktail, Road House, Charlie’s Angels) (60)
KC (Harry Wayne Casey) (of KC & the Sunshine Band, “Boogie Shoes”) (68)
Nolan Ryan (baseball Hall Of Fame pitcher, all-time strikeout leader) (72)