Cars

Mr. And Mrs. Sidney Crew, Press Eldridge, Harry Lee, The Automobile Girls and others play at The Bijou Theatre, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Mississippi John Hurt records Stack O'Lee Blues and Spike Driver Blues for Okeh Records in New York City, USA.

Gene O'Quin records I'm Lonesome For You, Let Me Change Your Name, No Parking Here and Boogie Woogie Fever, in Capitol Records Studio, 5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash play a show in the gymnasium, Bono High School, Bono, Arkansas. On the same day, Elvis buys a yellow 1954 Cadillac.

Chrysler announces the launch of Highway Hi-Fi, a 45rpm record player designed for use in the full Chrysler Corporation range of vehicles - Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, DeSoto and Imperial. The specially-manufactured Highway Hi-Fi discs can hold up to an hour of music and "A choice of popular and classical recordings, as well as recorded readings, is available."

In Montgomery, Alabama, USA, Rosa Parks refuses to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her act of civil disobedience will spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Parks will also help launch Martin Luther King to prominence in the civil rights movement. She will inspire the songs Sister Rosa (1989) by The Neville Brothers and Rosa Parks (1998) by Outkast.

Carl Perkins is injured in a car crash in Delaware, USA, on his way to New York City to appear on the Perry Como Show. His brother Jay is killed, and Perkins is hospitalised, making it impossible to promote his original version of Blue Suede Shoes.

Chuck Berry is arrested outside St Charles, Missouri, USA, when a Highway Patrol officer finds a concealed gun in his pink Cadillac.

Roy Acuff records Wabash Cannon Ball, The Lonely Mound Of Clay, Pins And Needles, Fire Ball Mail, The Great Speckle Bird, The Wreck On The Highway and other tracks at RCA Victor Studio, 1611 Hawkins Street, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

The Top Ten Singles in the UK on this date are :
1. YOU'RE MY WORLD - CILLA BLACK
2. Juliet - The Four Pennies
3. My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small
4. It's Over - Roy Orbison
5. Constantly (L'Edera) - Cliff Richard And The Shadows
6. A Little Loving - The Fourmost
7. The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt - The Shadows
8. Don't Throw Your Love Away - The Searchers
9. I Believe - The Bachelors
10. No Particular Place To Go - Chuck Berry

Thou Shalt Not Steal by Dick And Dee Dee peaks at No5 in the Canadian pop singles chart.

The Staple Singers perform at their local parish, New Nazareth Church, Chicago, Illinois, USA. The event is a service inspired by the Alabama marches. In a spirit-filled set that runs from Civil Rights anthems (We Shall Overcome) to traditional gospel (When The Saints Go Marching In), The Staple Singers introduce their own original material, including the just-composed Freedom Highway. The concert is recorded and will, eventually, be released as Freedom Highway Complete - Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church.

En route from Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, to Memphis, Tennessee, USA, in their Dodge Motor Home, Elvis Presley and his entourage stop off at the Holiday Inn, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Elvis has just completed filming of Paradise Hawaiian Style.

Elvis Presley's girlfriend Priscilla Beaulieu gives him a slot car racing set for Christmas. A group of his friends give Elvis a statue of Jesus for his recently-completed meditation garden at Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

Police in Detroit, Michigan, USA, raid an after hours drinking club in a predominantly black neighborhood around Twelfth Street and Clairmount Avenue. When local people turn up outside the club to protest at the heavy-handed police action, a riot is sparked. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit, then cross over to the East Side, and the city remains under National Guard control well into August. The story of the riots is told in John Lee Hooker's song The Motor City Is Burning, recorded soon after.

Three Bob Dylan albums, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde and Bringing It All Back Home, are simultaneously awarded gold discs in the USA.

Ernestine Dickens, the wife of country star Little Jimmy Dickens, dies in a car accident in Sherman, Texas, USA, when her car veers off an overpass.

Tommy Boyce And Bobby Hart play at The Jaguar Club, St. Charles, Illinois, USA, supported by The Boston Tea Party.

Steve Currie, former bassist of T.Rex, dies in a car crash while returning to his villa in Val Da Parra, Portugal.

Colin Walcott, acclaimed sitarist with Oregon, Larry Coryell, The Paul Winter Consort and others, dies from injuries sustained in a car accident in Magdeburg, West Germany, Europe.

The Clash’s Joe Strummer is banned for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Cars release the album Door To Door in the UK.

Sonny Rodgers And The Cat Scratchers record Cadillac Baby and Big Leg Woman at Blue Moon Studios, South Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

R'n'b vocalist Cornell Gunter dies in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, after being shot while in his automobile. Gunter is best-remembered for his work as a member of The Platters, The Flairs and The Coasters.

Country music star Marty Stuart is arrested following an auto accident in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA. The singer is arrested after allegedly hitting two cars in the street outside McDonald's restaurant.

Country-pop singer Lynn Anderson is arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated in Denton, Texas, USA.

Harold Kalin of The Kalin Twins, best-remembered for their 1958 hit When, dies aged 71 in Waldorf, Maryland, USA, from injuries sustained in a car crash.

Tom Petty releases his third solo LP, Highway Companion, on American Recordings in the UK.

Troubled former 60s pop idol Wayne Fontana sets fire to a debt collector's car while the man is still inside the vehicle. The debt collector had arrived at Fontana's home in Glossop, Derbyshire, UK, to collect £527.12 relating to a disputed parking fine.

Actress / singer Lindsay Lohan notches up her third car accident of the month when a Maserati, in which she is a passenger, hits a Subaru damaging its left front bumper in Glendale, California, USA.

Justin Timberlake is spotted riding his motor bike on the streets of Beverly Hills, California, USA.

After playing at the Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland, Europe, Rihanna is rushed to the accident and emergency department of Hirslanden private clinic via a blacked-out Mercedes. Her representatives refuse to make any comment.

A fire breaks out on the backing band's tourbus during Pink's European tour, forcing the bus to pull over en route from Munich to Berlin in Germany. Pink is not aboard the bus and the eight musicians escaped from the incident uninjured.

The Backstreet Boys announce that they, following the lead of hard rockers Korn, will boycott fuel giants British Petroleum while on tour, to protest the devastating oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wynonna Judd, plus her daughter and tour manager, are involved in a head-on collision in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, en route to a sushi restaurant. All three are treated for their injuries in a local hospital, after which they are released at midnight.

In Los Angeles, California, USA, former teen pop idol and tv star David Cassidy, is sentenced to three months in rehab and given five years probation as a result of his arrest in January for drunk driving.

Toseland release a new album, Cradle the Rage, on CD52 Records.

On her Anti World Tour Rihanna plays at The Mercedes Benz Arena, Berlin, Germany, Europe.

On their No Filter tour, The Rolling Stones play at Letnany Airport, Prague, Czech Republic, Europe.