History Highlight:

Freddie Mercury was born today in 1946. The Queen frontman was known for his powerful vocal range and live performances, but also as the composer of many of Queen's biggest hits such as "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Killer Queen," "Somebody to Love," "Don't Stop Me Now," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and "We Are the Champions." Mercury died of complications from AIDS at his home in London's Holland park at age 45, one day after he publicly announced he was HIV positive.

Also, Today In:

1956 - Elvis Presley surprised his mother with a gift of a pink Cadillac. The car remained in the Presley family and eventually went on display at Graceland.

1964 - A pair of Beatles songs were at the top of the singles charts: "And I Love Her" and "If I Fell", alongside "House Of The Rising Sun" by the Animals.

1965 - The Rolling Stones recorded their eighth single, "Get Off Of My Cloud", at RCA studios in Hollywood. The song peaked at No. 1 in the U.S.

1967 - Working at Abbey Road studios, The Beatles began recording John Lennon's new song "I Am the Walrus," recording 16 takes of the basic backing track. The song was featured in the Beatles' television film Magical Mystery Tour and was the B-side to the No. 1 single "Hello, Goodbye".

1978 - Joe Negroni from Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers died of a brain hemorrhage. (The group had the 1956 U.S. No. 6 single "Why Do Fools Fall In Love").

1981 - Stevie Nicks went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Bella Donna, featuring the songs "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (the Tom Petty duet), "Leather and Lace" (with Don Henley), "Edge of Seventeen" and "After the Glitter Fades".

1986 - Dire Straits won the MTV award for Best Video for "Money For Nothing."

1990 - A new star, honoring B.B. King, the "Beale Street blues boy," was added to the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

1991 - R.E.M. won the Video of the Year award for "Losing My Religion", in addition to Best Group Video and Breakthrough Video, and were nominated in three other categories.

1993 - The Red Hot Chili Peppers finally settled on a guitarist, Dave Navarro, who has been with band off and on since.

1998 - Aerosmith scored their first U.S. No. 1 single with the Diane Warren written song "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing". The song, which was featured in the 1998 film "Armageddon", gave the band their first No. 1 single after 28 years together.

2008 - The first Fender Stratocaster set alight on stage by Jimi Hendrix is auctioned. The guitar sells for $575,000 to collector Daniel Boucher - less than the $1 million predicted. It is one of only two guitars definitively burned by Hendrix - the other was at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

2016 - An asteroid was named after Freddie Mercury to mark what would have been the singer's 70th birthday. Queen guitarist Brian May told a gathering of fans in Switzerland that the asteroid would now be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.

Birthdays:

Al Stewart ("Year of the Cat") is 73.

Rock guitarist and son of Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa is 49.

Loudon Wainwright III, singer/songwriter and father of Martha and Rufus Wainwright, is 71.

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