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Today in Music History

August, 1

  • 1998 Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Sandra Crouch is ordained as pastor of her church, despite a ban on woman ministers by the Church of God in Christ. The singer is ordained by her brother, minister and popular gospel singer Andrea Crouch.
  • 1998 U.S. books and music superstore chain Borders opens its first European outlet with a 40,000-square-foot store on London’s Oxford Street.
  • 1997 Ireland’s Supreme Court gives the go-ahead for two U2 Popmart concerts scheduled for August 30 and 31 at Landsdowne Road stadium in Dublin. Earlier in the week, the country’s High Court had, under pressure from locals fearing excessive noise and general mayhem, overstepped its jurisdiction and banned the two gigs.
  • 1997 Svyatoslav Richter, who rose to fame in the Soviet Union in the 1940s to become one of the 20th century’s leading pianists dies from a heart attack at the age of 82.
  • 1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce that they were married 11 weeks earlier in a private ceremony in the Dominican Republic. Rumors of the marriage between the pop superstar and the only child of Elvis Presley had circulated after a Dominican official said he had been paid $50 to perform the ceremony.
  • 1981 MTV cable channel is launched. The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” is the first music video shown.
  • 1971 George Harrison’s Bangladesh concert benefit at Madison Square Garden.
  • 1971 “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” is launched on CBS-TV with a short summer run followed by three regular seasons.
  • 1960 Aretha Franklin makes her first secular recordings, including “Today I Sing the Blues.”
  • 1959 Singer Joe Elliott of Def Leppard is born in Sheffield, England. The group’s biggest hit is the No. 1 single “Love Bites” in 1988.
  • 1942 Jerry Garcia (Jerome John Garcia) of the Grateful Dead is born in San Francisco. The original group members are part of Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions and later the Warlocks. A flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Cherry Garcia, is named after the singer.