On July 19, 1985, Joan Jett called Mike Tyson before a fight to wish him luck. After Tyson won, he asked to call the singer before every match. That tradition lasted until 1990, when he suffered his first loss.
Breakthrough hits and milestones
1954: Elvis Presley released his first single. The twangy cover did well in Memphis and became a regional hit.
1975: Paul McCartney’s band Wings scored a No. 1 hit in the U.S. with a single that became McCartney’s fourth U.S. chart-topper.
1986: Genesis reached No. 1 in the U.S. with their only chart-topping single. It was later displaced by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel.
Cultural moments
1940: Singer Vikki Carr was born in El Paso, Texas. Over six decades she’s recorded jazz, pop, country, and Latin music and placed several songs on Billboard charts.
1966: Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow in Las Vegas. They divorced in 1968.
1988: Bruce Springsteen played a four-hour show in East Berlin to about 160,000 people. The concert was broadcast on state TV.
1993: In Philadelphia, Rage Against the Machine opened a Lollapalooza date by protesting the PMRC. Band members appeared nude with taped mouths and “PMRC” written on their chests.
2022: Queen’s 1981 Greatest Hits reached 7 million sales in the U.K., breaking the country’s album sales records.
Notable live shows
1974: The Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds drew roughly 350,000 fans. Acts included the Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Aerosmith.
1991: Guns N’ Roses played Shoreline Amphitheater on their Use Your Illusion Tour. The 21-song set included many fan favorites on a tour of more than 150 shows.
