Events in Music
- 1735 1st opera performed in America, "Flora", in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1902 Opera "Hunchback of Notre Dame" premieres in Monte Carlo
- 1947 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera "Telephone" premieres in NYC
- 1950 "Dance Me a Song" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 35 performances
- 1965 "Fade Out-Fade In" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 72 performances
Event of Interest
1968 David Gilmour joins rock group Pink Floyd
Roger Waters
David Gilmour
Event of Interest
1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono end a week of co-hosting Mike Douglas Show
John Lennon
Yoko Ono
Music Awards
1975 2nd American Music Awards: Olivia Newton-John & John Denver win
Olivia Newton-John
John Denver
Event of Interest
1977 George Harrison releases "True Love"
George Harrison
Event of Interest
1998 Andrea Bocelli makes his operatic debut as Rodolfo in "La bohème" at the Teatro Comunale in Cagliari
Andrea Bocelli
Birthdays in Music
- 1632 Giovanni Battista Vitali, composer
- 1716 Gaspard Fritz, Swiss composer and violinist, born in Geneva (d. 1783)
- 1751 Karl Haack, German composer, born in Berlin (d. 1819)
- 1770 Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck, composer
- 1771 Friedrich Christian Ruppe, composer and violinist, brother of Christian Friedrich Ruppe
- 1776 John Parry [Bardd Alaw], Welsh composer and harpist, born in Denbigh (d. 1851)
- 1819 Joseph Philbrick Webster, composer
- 1841 Samuel Prowse Warren, composer
- 1850 George Henschel, composer
- 1880 Eric De Lamarter, composer
- 1902 Walter Herbert, German-born conductor and impresario (d. 1975)
- 1914 Pee Wee King, country vocalist (Pee Wee King Song), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- 1915 Marcel Landowsky, composer
- 1929 Agustín González García, Spanish composer (Prince of Viana Prize), born in Alsasua, Navarra
- 1929 André Mathieu, Quebec composer (d. 1968)
- 1931 Dieter Schonbach, composer
- 1933 Elisabeth S "Elly" Belder-Ameling, Dutch soprano
- 1934 Skip Battin, singer-songwriter (The Byrds), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2003)
- 1934 Aldo Ceccato, conductor (Detroit Symph Orch 1973-77), born in Milan, Italy
- 1934 Bobby Taylor, American singer and producer who discovered "The Jackson 5" (Motown Records), born in Washington, D.C. (birth year contested-1939) (d. 2017)
- 1935 Bosko Petrovic, Croatian jazz musician, founder of the Zagreb Jazz Quartet, born in Bjelovar (d. 2011)
- 1937 Alan Johnson, American 3-time Emmy Award winning choreographer (Springtime for Hitler, West Side Story), born in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (d. 2018)
- 1939 Marlos Nobre, composer
- 1939 Marek Janowski, Polish-born conductor
- 1940 Fabrizio de André, Italian singer-songwriter (Storia di un impiegato), born in Genoa, Italy (d. 1999)
- 1941 David Blue, [Cohen], follk musician (Cupid's Arrow), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1982)
- 1941 Herb Santiago, vocalist (Frankie Lymon & Teenagers-Why Do Fools Fall)
- 1941 Irma Thomas, [Lee], US vocalist (It's Raining)
- 1946 Buddy Cage, American pedal steel guitarist (New Riders of the Purple Sage, Great Speckled Bird), born in Toronto, Ontario
- 1947 Dennis De Young, vocalist (Styx-Babe), born in Chicago, Illinois
- 1948 Keith Knudsen, American drummer, vocalist and songwriter (Doobie Brothers), born in Le Mars, Iowa (d. 2005)
- 1953 Derek Pellicci, rock drummer (Little River Band-Help Is On It's Way)
- 1953 Nico Arzbach, rock guitarist/singer (Stampei, Dike)
- 1953 Robin Bachman, Winnipeg, guitarist (BTO-You Aint Seen Nothing Yet)
John Travolta
1954 John Travolta, American actor (Grease, Pulp Fiction), born in Englewood, New Jersey
John Travolta
- 1965 Dr. Dre [Andre Young], American record producer and rapper (Aftermath Entertainment), born in Compton, California
- 1970 Raine Maida, Canadian musician (Our Lady Peace)
- 1977 Sean Watkins, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1980 Regina Spektor, Russian-born singer and songwriter
- 1982 Courtney Act [Shane Jenek], Australian drag queen, pop singer, entertainer and reality television personality, born in Brisbane, Queensland
- 1983 Juelz Santana, American rapper
- 1984 Buddy Nielsen, American singer (Senses Fail)
- 1994 J-Hope [Jung Ho-seok] South Korean rapper (BTS), born in Gwangju, South Korea,
Deaths in Music
- 1745 Nicola Fago, Italian baroque composer, dies at 67
- 1790 Wilhelm Gottfried Enderle, composer, dies at 67
- 1799 Maurus Haberhauer, Czech composer, dies at 52
- 1829 Jan Krtitel Kuchar, composer, dies at 77
- 1833 Georg Johann Schinn, German composer, dies at 64
- 1833 Ignac Ruzitska, composer, dies at 55
- 1846 Giovanni Liverati, Italian composer, dies at 73
- 1885 Charlotte Sainton-Dolby, English contralto and composer, dies at 61
- 1939 Ludwig Bonvin, composer, dies at 89
- 1956 Gustave Charpentier, French opera composer (Louise), dies at 95
- 1959 Alfred Alessandrescu, composer, dies at 65
- 1959 Eric Zeisl, Austrian American composer, dies at 53
- 1959 Jaroslav Kvapil, composer, dies at 66
- 1966 Casimir von Paszthory, composer, dies at 79
- 1967 Manuel Palau Boix, composer, dies at 74
- 1975 Luigi Dallapiccola, composer, dies
- 1980 Gale Robbins [Betty Gale Murphy], American singer and actress (Fuller Brush Girl, Mr Hex), dies of lung cancer at 58
- 1985 Willy Alberti [Carel Verbrugge], Dutch singer and actor (Riffin in Amsterdam), dies at 58
- 1987 Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky, composer, dies at 82
- 1995 Dennis "Denny" Cordell, British rock music and record producer (The Moody Blues, Leon Russell), dies of lymphoma at 51
- 1995 John Rhea "Yank" Lawson, American jazz trumpeter (Dogtown Blues, Stormy Weather), dies of a heart attack at 84
- 1995 Robert "Bob" Stinson, American rock guitarist (The Replacements), dies of organ failure at 35
- 1997 Eric William Fenby, musician, dies at 90
- 2013 Kevin Ayers, English rocker, dies at 68
- 2013 Damon Harris, American soul singer, dies from prostate cancer at 62
- 2014 Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-born American singer, dies at 99
February in History
A Deadly Bite, Or King Tut's Revenge?
It was one of the most spectacular archaeological finds – but was the disturbed Tutankhamun a sleeping tiger?
February 16, 1923
Buried at Sea: The Casket That Carried JFK
John F. Kennedy's aides struggling to load the casket containing the slain President aboard Air Force One is an enduring image. But what happened to the casket?
February 18, 1966
Final Deadly Performance of a Twisted Actor
From a celebrated family of actors came a young man with a twisted mind whose last performance involved the death of a president.
February 20, 1817
Wonder of Woolworths Begins its Meteoric Rise
It was a simple idea: opening a store where nothing cost more than five cents. The idea caught on so quickly that Woolworth’s became a retail phenomenon.
February 22, 1878