History Highlight:

Today in 1997, organized by Sarah McLachlan, the all-female Lilith Fair tour kicked off with a show in The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State. The lineup included Jewel, Suzanne Vega and Paula Cole, with Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow and Fiona Apple joining on subsequent stops. The tour took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. In its initial three years, Lilith Fair raised over $10 million for charity.

Also, Today In:

1954 - Working together for the first time in a recording studio with Scotty Moore and Bill Black, Elvis Presley fooled around during a break with an up-tempo version of 'That's All Right.' Producer Sam Phillips had them repeat the jam and recorded it. It became Presley's first release on Sun Records.

1966 - Chas Chandler of The Animals saw Jimi Hendrix perform at the Cafe Wha? in New York. Chandler went on to become Jimi's manager and took him to London, where The Jimi Hendrix Experience formed.

1969 - The Rolling Stones gave a free concert in London's Hyde Park for an audience of 250,000, as a tribute to Brian Jones who had died two days earlier. Mick Jagger read an extract from Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Adonais" and released 3,500 butterflies.

1983 - Suicidal Tendencies released their self-titled debut album. The album spawned Suicidal Tendencies' biggest hit to date, "Institutionalized."

1984 - The Everly Brothers launched their first tour together in 11 years in Cincinnati.

1986 - Janet Jackson started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Control.

1993 - Bjork released her first post-Sugarcubes solo album, titled Debut. Featuring the tracks "Human Behaviour" and "Big Time Sensuality," it set the stage for her rise as a solo star.

1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish released Cracked Rear View. It's their debut album, and it took off at the beginning of 1995, becoming the best-selling album in the history of Atlantic Records.

1996 - Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born. She was named after Dolly Parton as the scientist thought the country star was the person most synonymous with mammary glands.

1999 - The Eurythmics announced their first world tour for more than 10 years and that all profits would be given to charity. The duo made the announcement from the Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" on the River Thames in London.

2000 - Cub Koda (Michael "Cub" Koda), founder member of Brownsville Station died of complications from kidney failure.

2003 - Johnny Cash made his last ever live performance when he appeared at the Carter Ranch. Before singing "Ring of Fire", Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage: "The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has."

2014 - The four surviving members of The Grateful Dead gave what they said would be their final performance, playing to over 70,000 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field. The shows came 20 years after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who played his last show in the nation's third-largest city in 1995.

Birthdays:

Robbie Robertson of The Band is 74.

Cassie Gaines, backing singer with Lynyrd Skynyrd, was born today in 1948.

Michael Monarch of Steppenwolf is 67.

Huey Lewis is 67.

Jimmy Crespo, guitarist for Aerosmith, is 63.

Marc Cohn ("Walking in Memphis") is 58.

Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known as RZA (Wu-Tang Clan) is 48.

Nick O'Malley of Arctic Monkeys is 32.

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