Music History
Jan 23 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time
Radio Premiere
Feb 6 Singer Frank Sinatra debuts on radio's "Your Hit Parade"
Tagus River Plane Crash
Feb 22 Plane crash in the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal kills 23 with 15 survivors including singer Jane Froman
Present Laughter
Apr 29 Noël Coward's comic play "Present Laughter" premieres in London
- Apr 30 Noël Coward's play "This Happy Breed" premieres in London; written in 1939, production was delayed by WWII
Stormy Weather
Jul 21 Musical film "Stormy Weather", directed by Andrew L. Stone, starring Bill Robinson, Lena Horne and Fats Waller (singing "Ain't Misbehavin'") premieres in the US
Music Premiere
Aug 11 Richard Strauss' Second Horn Concerto, premieres at the Salzburg Festival with Gottfried von Freiberg as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm
Music Premiere
Nov 3 Dmitri Shostakovich's 8th Symphony premieres in Moscow
- Nov 6 "Catulli Carmina (Songs of Catullus)", the second work of Carl Orff's Trionfi cantata trilogy premieres at the Leipzig Opera
Girl Crazy
Nov 26 MGM releases last of 9 Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movies - "Girl Crazy", a film adaptation of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin's stage musical
Requiem
Dec 3 Howard Hanson conducts premiere of his 4th Symphony ("Requiem") with the Boston Symphony; wins Pulitzer Prize for Music, 1944