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Ma Rainey's Birth
1886 Columbus, Georgia. Ma rainey was born, she is also known as "Mother of Blues". -
Phonograph's Invention
The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. The phonograph, record player, is a device introduced in 1877 for the recording and reproduction of sound recordings. -
Bessie Smith's Birth
<a href='' >http://www.biography.com/people/bessie-smith-9486520</a>Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 15, 1894. She began to sing at a young age and in 1923 signed a contract with Columbia Records. She was called "The Empress of the Blues". -
Maple Leaf Rag is Published.
1899 Publication of the Maple Leaf Rag. Sales are slow at first, but then it becomes a nationwide best-seller. Music publishers churn out hundreds of rags to capitalize on the trend. -
Leo Fender's Birth
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company -
Les Paul's Birth
Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009) —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul -
Scott Joplin records piano roll Maple Leaf Rag
A year before his death. Joplin makes a piano roll of Maple Leaf Rag. -
Scott Joplin's Death
A unique document, but his health is failing and the playing is full of mistakes. In 1916, suffering from tertiary syphilis and by consequence rapidly deteriorating health, Joplin descended into dementia. He was admitted to a mental institution in January 1917, and died there three months later at the age of 49 -
No mass media.
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Ma Rainey's Lost Wandering Blues
Ma Rainey publishes "Dream Blues / Lost Wandering Blues". -
Bessie Smith records St. Louis Blues
The version with Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong on cornet was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Louis_Blues_(song) -
78 RPM
78RPM is chosen as the standard speed for records, allowing one song per side. -
Ma Rainey records See See Rider
The song is generally regarded as being traditional in origin. Ma Rainey's version became popular during 1925, as "See See Rider Blues." -
Bessie Smith records "Empty Bed Blues"
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AM Radio
AM Radio became dominant mass media in industrialized nations. Radio owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone, all three technologies are closely related. Radio technology began as "wireless telegraphy". Lee Deforest invented space telegraphy, the triode amplifier and the Audion. In the early 1900s, the great requirement for further development of radio was an efficient and delicate detector of electromagnetic radiation. Lee De Forest provided that detector. -
First talking movie "Song of the Flames"
First talking Technicolor movie is released by the Warner Brothers. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_first_movie_made_in_technicolor?#slide=2 -
Ersel Hickey's Birth
Ersel Hickey (June 27, 1934 – July 12, 2004), born in Brighton, New York, was a rockabilly singer best known for his hit song "Bluebirds over the Mountain"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ersel_Hickey. -
Elvis Presley's Birth
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer, musician, and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King". -
The Invention of Radar
Radar (for RAdio Detection And Ranging) was developed over the years with input from many sources, but it was Robert Watson-Watt, a Scottish physicist looking for a reliable method to help airmen locate and avoid approaching thunderstorms, who designed the first set put into practical use. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/dayintech_0226 -
Ma Rainey's Death
In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome",until her death from a heart attack in 1939 at age 53.in Rome, Georgia. -
Bessie Smith's Death
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith -
FM Radio Invented
Frequency Modulation (FM) Radio was invented. -
Commercial Television
Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone over the years, contributed to the evolution of television. -
First electric guitar "Les Paul"
The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor and recording artist, Paul has been an innovator his entire life. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. It’s safe to say that rock and roll as we know it would not exist without his invention. - See more at: http://rockhall.com/inductees/les-paul/bio/#sthash.EWREESiy.dpuf -
First Nuclear Weapon
During World War II, the United States, with the assistance (collaboration) of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers from the U.S., Britain, Canada and Europe, completed the Manhattan Project to produce the first atomic bomb. http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm -
Leo Fender created his own Company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Musical_Instruments_Corporation
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC), commonly referred to simply as Fender, is a US manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. It is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company, previously named the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was founded in Fullerton, California, by Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender. -
33 RMP
Columbia introduced 33 RPM record, allowing 5 to 6 songs per side. http://www.33audio.com/enter/ML4001.html -
Television Reached Maturity
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Folk Art became dominant form of Art
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Multtrack Recording by Les Paul
Much of the credit for the development of multitrack recording goes to guitarist, composer and technician Les Paul, who also helped design the famous electric guitar that bears his name. His experiments with tapes and recorders in the early 1950s led him to order the first custom-built eight-track recorder from Ampex, and his pioneering recordings with his then wife, singer Mary Ford, were the first to make use of the technique of multitracking to record separate elements of a musical piece. -
Independent Label
Independent labels have a long history of signalling developments in popular music, stretching back to the post-war period in the United States.Disputes with major labels about publishing led to a proliferation of labels specializing in country, jazz, and blues. Sun Records played an important part in the development of Rock 'n' roll as well as country, with artists such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich. -
BIRTH OF ROCK N' ROLL!
In the early 1950s, a new form of music exploded onto the scene, exciting the growing teenage audience while startling many others who preferred the music of Bing Crosby and Patti Page. Popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in 1951, the term “rock and roll” came to be used to describe a new form of music, steeped in the blues, rhythm and blues, country and gospel. - See more at: https://rockhall.com/education/distance-learning/courses/big-bang/#sthash.jfG6WGRT.dpuf -
Tiny Bradshaw records "Train Kept a Rollin"
"Train Kept A-Rollin'" (or "The Train Kept A-Rollin'") is a song first recorded by American jazz and rhythm and blues musician Tiny Bradshaw in 1951.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4EQDD4CqA -
First Passenger Jet Airplane
The first purpose-built jet airliner was the British de Havilland Comet which first flew in 1949 and entered service in 1952.
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2012/05/may-2-1952-first-commercial-jet-flies-from-london-to-johannesburg/ -
Patti Page records "How much is that Doggy on the Window"
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Sony releases Transistor Radio at $25
Following the success of the TR-63 Sony continued to make their transistor radios smaller. Because of the extremely low labor costs in Japan, Japanese transistor radios began selling for as low as $25. Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation made its first functional transistor radio in 1954.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio -
Transistor Radio came to Market
The first transistor radio was a joint project between the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates and Texas Instruments. TI knew that it needed a fun product to catch the nation's attention. They thought a radio was just the thing to make a splash. TI built the transistors; Regency built the radio. On October 18, 1954, the Regency TR1 was put on the market. It was a scant five inches high and used four germanium transistors.
http://www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/ev -
Texas Instruments' Transistor Radio
The first transistor radio hit the consumer market on October 18, 1954. The Regency TR-1 featured four germanium transistors operating on a 22.5-volt battery that provided over twenty hours of life. The unit weighed eleven ounces and cost $49.95.
http://www.regencytr1.com/ -
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Launch of Sputnik
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8 inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S. -
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CBS buys Fender
In the 1950s, Leo Fender contracted a streptococcal sinus infection that impaired his health to the point where he decided to wind up his business affairs, selling the Fender company to CBS in 1965. As part of this deal, Leo Fender signed a non-compete clause and remained a consultant with Fender for a while. Shortly after selling the company, he changed doctors and was cured of his illness. -
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Aerosmith records "Train kept a Rollin"
In 1974, Aerosmith brought "Train Kept A-Rollin'" into the hard-rock mainstream. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Tom Hamilton had performed the song prior to joining Aerosmith. Perry recalled, "'Train Kept A-Rollin' was the only song we had in common when we first got together. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Kept_A-Rollin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4seZr86NkVs -
Rolling Stones Illustrated History of RnR Published
First, the book does an excellent job of covering the entirety of rock history and drawing out its influences and evolutions. It does a wonderful job of covering the different local scenes and how they were integrated in with the whole of rock music. Whole chapters are generally rewarded to the most influential bands, and not just those that sold more album.
-Customer opinion The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll edited by Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke with Holly George-Warren -
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G&L Company Created by Leo
In 1979, Leo Fender and old friends George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt started a new company called G&L (George & Leo) Musical Products. G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics.
http://www.glguitars.com/about-GL/index2.asp -
Leo Fender's Death
On March 21, 1991, he died, having long suffered from Parkinson's disease. He was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California. http://www.rockabillyhall.com/LeoFender1.html -
Ersel Hickey's Death
Hickey died after surgery to remove his bladder in July 2004 at New York University Medical Center. He was 70 years old. -
Les Paul's Death
On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul -
