Birthday Highlight:

Today in 1967, Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar live on stage for the first time when he was appearing at The Astoria in London. It was the first night of a 24-date tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdink. The Fender Stratocaster burned on stage by Hendrix sold for £280,000 (about $500,000) at a 2008 London auction of rock memorabilia.

Also, Today In:

1928 - One of Country Music's most influential characters William Orwell 'Lefty' Frizzell is born. Among the artists he influenced are George Jones, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Merle Haggard, and John Fogerty. Frizzell died of a massive stroke July 19, 1975. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1982.

1949 - RCA Victor introduced the 45rpm single record, which had been in development since 1940. The 7-inch disc was designed to compete with the Long Playing record introduced by Columbia a year earlier. Both formats offered better fidelity and longer playing time than the 78rpm record that was currently in use.

1958 - Chuck Berry's rock 'n' roll classic "Johnny B. Goode" single was released. It entered the U.S. charts six weeks later and peaked at No. 8 on the chart.

1964 - Filming for A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles played a "live television performance" in front of a studio of screaming fans (one of those fans was Phil Collins). The four songs used in the film were "Tell Me Why," "I Should Have Known Better," "And I Love Her," and "She Loves You."

1976 - Led Zeppelin released Presence, their seventh studio album, on their own Swan Song Records in the U.K. Presence has now been certified 3 times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for U.S. sales in excess of 3 million copies.

1984 - Kenny Loggins started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Footloose", the theme from the film with the same name.

1995 - Jimmy Page escaped being knifed when a fan rushed the stage at a Page and Plant gig at Auburn Hills, Mich. The fan was arrested and told police he wanted to kill Jimmy Page because of the Satanic music he was playing.

1995 - Tejano singer Selena died after being shot by her former personal assistant and former fan club president in Corpus Christi, Texas at the age of 23. Reactions to her death were compared to those following the deaths of John Lennon and Elvis Presley.

1996 - Jeffrey Lee Pierce (Gun Club) died of a brain hemorrhage. He was 37.

Birthdays:

Shirley Jones, known for her roles in Oklahoma! as well as on The Partridge Family, is 81.

Herb Alpert is 81.

Guitarist Mick Ralphs, founding member of Mott The Hoople and Bad Company, is 72.

AC/DC guitarist Angus Young is 61 today.

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Paul Shaffer's Day in Rock, and Wikipedia.