History Highlight:

Today in 1995, Grateful Dead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack caused by hardening of the arteries at a rehabilitation clinic in San Francisco. He was 53 years old. Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career (1965-1995), but he also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. Interesting fact about Garcia - he was well known for his distinctive guitar playing despite missing a finger that was cut off at age four while chopping wood with his brother.

Also, Today In:

1964 - Bob Dylan and Joan Baez shared the stage for the first time, singing "With God On Our Side" at the Newport Folk Festival.

1964 - The crowd of over 3,000 at Rolling Stones gig in Manchester, England, proved too hard to control, accidentally breaking the ribs of one policeman and causing another two to faint in the crush.

1967 - At the National Blues and Jazz Festival in the U.K., Jerry Lee Lewis had his set cut short after the overenthusiastic crowd caused a near-riot.

1978 - The great Muddy Waters played at a White House picnic at the request of President Carter.

1980 - AC/DC reached the top of the U.K. Album Chart with Back in Black which spent two weeks on top of the chart. The album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 Album Chart in the U.S. and went on to sell 45 million copies worldwide.

1986 - Queen played their last live concert with Freddie Mercury at the Knebworth Park Festival in England. An audience of 120,000 heard them close out with "We Will Rock You"/"We Are The Champions" and "God Save The Queen." Mercury died in 1991 of complications related to AIDS. Freddie Mercury is considered one of the greatest performers in the history of rock, for years coming in near (or at) the top of polls of the greatest rock singers of all time.

1996 - The Ramones officially broke up.

1995 - Kiss taped their appearance for MTV Unplugged in New York City. During this performance, they performed with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss for the first time since 1979.

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