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A 10-second recording of a singer performing the folk song Au Clair de la Lune is made in Paris, France, Europe, by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, on his invention the phonautograph, a machine designed to record sounds visually, in soot on a glass surface, but incapable of playing the sounds back. Playback of this recording will not be effected until 2008 by a group of American audio historians. It is nevertheless, the first documented recording of a human voice.
US Patent Serial No. 193,229 is filed by Roman E. Shvetz of New York City, USA, for his invention of a combination Rocking-chair and musical-box.
Entertainment trade magazine Variety reports that movie-goer Earl Shanks was recently jailed for throwing a cowbell at the screen during a showing of the Elvis Presley film Jailhouse Rock in the Brunson Theatre, Baytown, Texas, USA. Shanks is later released on $500 bail but faces charges of malicious destruction of property.
British actor Oliver Reed makes his debut on vinyl by releasing a single version of the old country and western classic Tumbling Tumbleweeds, in the UK. Some years later, Reed will admit, "I couldn't sing a note."
Aspiring musician Frank Zappa is seen performing the avant-garde composition Concerto For Two Bicycles, on tv's Steve Allen Show in KFMB Studios, San Diego, California, USA. The performance was pre-recorded two weeks earlier.
Elvis Presley's staff – known as the Memphis Mafia – give him a Christmas gift of a specially inscribed bible. The front cover features a "tree of life" illustration with the names of each staff member attached to the branches. Elvis refuses to accept it until the name of his hairdresser (and spiritual advisor) Larry Geller is added.
Long-haired British pop group The Rolling Stones place an ironic message in UK pop music paper the NME (New Musical Express) wishing a 'Happy Christmas to the starving hairdressers and their families'.
Musical comedy performer Allan Sherman stars in his own tv special, Allan Sherman's Funnyland, on NBC-tv in the USA.
The Vatican's weekly magazine, published in Rome, Italy, Europe, compliments American MOR pop crooner Pat Boone on the dignity of his private life, and adds, "It even pleased us, the way you sing. No shouting, no facial gestures, no contortions…"
When aspiring rock combo Sound Of The Seventh Son go to court in Los Angeles, California, USA, to have their contracts with Tower Records and SOS Productions approved, Judge A.A. Scott exclaims "They look like freaks! … I don’t know whether they are girls or boys … God help t hem if they get to some real men". The band includes Jimmy Greenspoon, who will find greater success as a member of Three Dog Night.
Bob Dylan is backed on a live gig by Levon And The Hawks for the first time at the Municipal Auditorium in Austin, Texas, USA. When questioned about God during a press conference before the gig Dylan retorts, "God is a woman ... you take it from there."
A BBC Radio audition panel in London, UK, makes its observations on a demo tape submitted by Elton John - 'Male vocal in the 1968 feeling - thin, piercing voice with no emotional appeal... dreary songs... one key singer... pretentious material'.I'm The Urban Spaceman by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band is released in the USA. Producer of this hit single is Paul McCartney of The Beatles.
Pacific Gas And Electric, Lee Michaels, Lonnie Mack and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band play the second of two nights at The Kinetic Playground, 4812 North Clark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, USA.Led Zeppelin play the last of three nights at Winterland, San Francisco, California, USA, supported by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
The group playing as The Nobs tonight in the KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe, is actually Led Zeppelin. The name change is necessary to avoid legal action by Frau Eva Von Zeppelin who objects to "four shrieking monkeys abusing my family name."Fleetwood Mac record live brass band material for their single Tusk, with the University of Southern California's Trojan Marching Band in Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California, USA. The session sets a new record for the largest number of musicians performing on a single up to that date.
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During an Ozzy Osbourne gig at The Veterans' Memorial Coliseum, Des Moines, Iowa, USA, seventeen year old audience member Mark Neal throws a dead bat onto the stage. Osbourne, evidently carried away in the heat of the moment, picks up the bat and bites its head off, and has to be rushed to the nearby Broadlawns Medical Center for rabies shots.
When US tv show Saturday Night Live asks viewers to phone-in with their choices for the US Democratic candidate, 131,384 votes are cast for
During their World Slavery Tour, Iron Maiden play at Hala Arena, Poznan, Poland, Europe. After the show, they repair to a local restaurant, The Adria, for a drink. However, there is also a wedding reception in the restaurant, and Maiden are talked into playing a brief live set for the bride and groom, during which they perform Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water.
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Elton John attends the 3rd Test Match in Sydney, Australia, Oceania, and is so delighted when the English cricketers defeat Australia that he pours champagne all over himself in celebration.
Shortly after Rick Vito and Billy Burnette join the band, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac invites both to her home in Los Angeles, California, USA. This date is chosen because it is part of The Harmonic Convergence - the world's first globally synchronized meditation, and Nicks hopes that a meeting on this day will bring them good fortune in their new endeavour.
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones becomes (arguably) rock's sexiest grandad when his daughter Jade gives birth to her first daughter, Assissi.
Police are called to calm angry punters when Michael Jackson's sister Latoya flees fully clothed from Al's Diamond Cabaret in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA, after failing to strip nude as agreed.At the BRIT Awards ceremony in Earls Court, London, England, UK, Europe, Pete Townshend of The Who presents Oasis with the Best British Group award. They also win Best Album and Best Video. The big event of the night, however, comes when Jarvis Cocker of Pulp takes the stage in the middle of Michael Jackson's messianic performance of Earth Song and performs a parody of Jackson's act.
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A new main-belt asteroid (i.e. a minor planet) is discovered by I.P. Griffin at Auckland, New Zealand. He names it 23990 Springsteen in honour of Bruce Springsteen.
It is announced that a dog-sized dinosaur, whose remains were recently discovered on the island of Madagascar, has been named Masiakasaurus knopfleri in honour of guitarist and songwriter Mark Knopfler, whose music inspired the team of palaeontologists who made the discovery.
In the first episode of series 2 of UK tv sitcom Phoenix Nights, the characters Max and Paddy sing Tony Christie's 70s hit single, [Is This The Way To] Amarillo, while driving a group of elderly Asian gentlemen to the mosque. The broadcast prompts public and media interest in the song which is, eventually, re-released and goes to No1.
A poll conducted by long-established radio station KIIS in Los Angeles, California, USA, finds that Americans believe rapper
Bob Dylan gives his first television interview in nineteen years to Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes. On the same evening, he makes an appearance in animated form on The Simpsons.
A new Willie Nelson album, Countryman, is released in the USA on Columbia Records. The album is a collection of reggae covers, available with two alternative front covers. One features a palm tree, the other because of pressure from Wal-Mart stores, features a marijuana leaf. 
Simon Neil, guitarist, singer and songwriter of Biffy Clyro, marries his girlfriend Francesca Pieroni, an English teacher at Cumnock Academy, at St Columba Church, Ayr, Scotland, UK, Europe. There is no live music at the wedding, because Neil - being a band member - feels he has faced enough live music over the years as part of his job.It is reported that German spider specialist Peter Jäger has named a newly-discovered hairy, yellow giant Malaysian spider Heteropoda davidbowie, in honour of rock star David Bowie. (One of Bowie's best-known albums was entitled The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.)
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys release a new single, Empire State Of Mind, on Roc Nation Records in the USA. The song is an anthem for New York City, and will become a major international hit single. It will also inspire Katy Perry to write California Gurls, her 2010 song about the delights of California. Empire State Of Mind will also inspire several parodies, including a Welsh variation on the theme entitled Newport State Of Mind by Alex Warren and Terema Wainwright.
While driving his dog Spartacus to the vet for knee surgery, rapper Ice-T is stopped and arrested by police near West 40th Street and 11th Avenue, New York City, USA, for a traffic violation.
On their Great British Narrowboat tour, folk quartet Skinny Lister hold their Tour Party in The Lock Tavern, Camden Lock, London, England, UK.Gogol Bordello and P.I.L. play at The Festival Of Peace, Kazan, Russia, Europe. Gogol Bordello's performance is stopped by the arrival of a platoon of machine-gun bearing soldiers, who then bring the Russian premier, Dmitry Medvedev, on stage. He thanks the band, then goes down to the front of the stage and ejoys the show.
Internet search engine Google's front page celebrates what would
have been the 65th birthday of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury with a "Google Doodle" animation depicting
the singer acting out the lyrics of the band's 1979 single Don't
Stop Me Now. Unfortunately, his birthday was actually September
5...
When Bono of U2 goes busking on Grafton Street in Dublin, Ireland, with Damien Rice and The Frames' singer Glen Hansard, local police do not recognise any of the three, and try to move the famous trio on.
PETA releases its list of Celebrity Grinches of 2011 with Janet Jackson in first place, because of "the stolen animal skins that she drapes herself with, which are as dead as her taste in fashion."
Kiss and Def Leppard play at The Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado, USA. During the show, Gene Simmons of Kiss appears to find himself unable to control his over-filled bladder and solves the problem by urinating onstage three minutes and forty seconds into their performance of Paul Stanley's Hide Your Heart. He later explains that the stream of liquid seen to be running down the front of his costume was, simply, water, which he was using to clean up his outfit after his celebrated blood-spitting stunt in the previous song.
It is reported that a newly-discovered species of Brazilian tree frog has been named Dendropsophus ozzyi in honour of Ozzy Osbourne, because of its distinctive high-pitched bat-like calls.
Abba Monopoly, an Abba-oriented version of the popular board game, is made available to buy via the band's website.
It is announced that a newly discovered species of tarantula spider has been named Aphonopelma johnnycashi, because it was discovered near Folsom State Prison in California, USA. The logic behind the naming is that Folsom Prison Blues is one of Johnny Cash's best-known songs, and that the spider is mainly black in colour - 'The Man In Black' being a well-known nickname for Johnny Cash.
In a Twitter posting, popular British singer Rebecca Ferguson reveals that she has been asked to sing at the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump but will only agree to perform if she can sing Strange Fruit, the 1939 song about the lynching of black men, made famous by Billie Holiday.When Justin Bieber is asked by TMZ if he enjoys The Weeknd's music, he responds, ""Hell nah. That s**t's wack!" His opinion is thought to be somewhat influenced by the fact that his former girlfriend Selena Gomez is now dating The Weeknd.
A new world record for the largest triangle ensemble is achieved by students of The Music Man Project when 1,521 people play triangles at the 'Music is Magic' concert organised by David Stanley in at the London Palladium, London, England, UK, Europe.
European Space Administration astronaut Alexander Gerst has his first interaction with a new artificial intelligence device, CIMON (short for Crew Interactive Mobile CompanioN), in the Columbus Lab aboard the International Space Station. During their interaction, Cimon plays the Kraftwerk song The Man Machine at Gersh's request, but does not stop playing the music when Gersh tells him to. Instead Cimon says, "I love music you can dance to." Later, Cimon tells Gersh, "Be nice to me."
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