History Highlight:

Today in 2020, John Prine is named the first honorary poet laureate of Illinois. Prine died of coronavirus three months earlier. The singer was born in Maywood, Illinois and was a staple in the Chicago folk scene. Prine received numerous accolades throughout his career, including multiple Grammy Awards, inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. 

Also, Today In: 

1971 - San Francisco's Fillmore West concert hall closes. 

1973 - George Harrison knocked Paul McCartney from the top of the U.S. singles chart with "Give Me Love, Give Me Peace On Earth." It was Harrison's second U.S. No. 1 and is the opening track on his 1973 album Living in the Material World. 

1975 - Cher married Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band. 

1975 - The Jackson 5 announced that they were leaving Motown Records for Epic Records. The brothers were forced to change their name to The Jacksons because Motown owned the other name. Jermaine Jackson stayed with Motown when his brothers broke their contracts and left for CBS; he was replaced by youngest Jackson brother Randy.  

1977 - Marvel Comics launched a comic book based on the rock group Kiss. 

1978 - United Artists released Buzzcocks' single "Love You More". At 1 minute 29 seconds, it was the second-shortest single ever released. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' 1960 hit "Stay" was the shortest hit at 1 minute 28 seconds. 

1979 - One-hit wonder Anita Ward started a two-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Ring My Bell." 

1984 - Huey Lewis and the News went to No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with Sports. 

1990 - New Kids On The Block started a three-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Step By Step," the group's third U.S. No. 1 single. 

1991 - During a show at Brixton Academy in London, The Alarm frontman Mike Peters tells the crowd he's leaving the group, shocking his bandmates with the announcement. 

1995 - Garth Brooks was given a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. 

1998 - System Of A Down release their frantic self-titled debut album. The singles "Sugar" and "Spiders" earn airplay on rock radio and MTV, and as the band builds a following through touring, it goes on to sell over a million copies in America. 

2000 - During a Pearl Jam concert at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, nine people were crushed as the crowd rushed the stage. Investigations concluded that the events were an accident. Several people fell and couldn't get up, and in addition, crowd surfers were falling into the open area. Pearl Jam stopped the show and asked people to back up, but it was too late. As a result, many European venues have banned crowd surfing. The Pearl Jam song "Love Boat Captain" refers to the events with the line "Lost nine friends we'll never know... two years ago today.”  

2001 - American guitarist and producer Chet Atkins died in Nashville at age 77. Atkins produced more than 100 albums during his career, and he produced records for Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves and Waylon Jennings. George Harrison and Mark Knopfler have both cited Atkins as a major influence. 

2004 - Kinks founding member Dave Davies was left paralyzed on the right-hand side of his body after suffering a stroke. The 57-year-old guitarist and brother of fellow Kink Ray Davies had been promoting his solo material when he collapsed. 

2007 - R.E.M. played a five-night series of shows at Dublin's Olympia Theatre. Dubbed 'working rehearsals' by the band, many songs from their forthcoming album 'Accelerate' debuted, with many of them still as works in progress. 

2009 - Spinal Tap start (and end) their One Night Only World Tour at Wembley Arena in London. 

2015 - Apple launches a new streaming service, Apple Music. 

2017 - Jay-Z releases his album 4:44, which addresses the infidelity accusations his wife Beyoncé leveled at him in her album Lemonade. "Let the baddest girl in the world get away," he raps on the opening track, "Kill Jay-Z." 

2019 -Taylor Swift's former label, Big Machine, was sold to Scotter Braun's company for an estimated $300 Million, giving him control of her back catalog, including the master recordings. 

Birthdays: 

Folk singer-songwriter Dave Van Ronk was born in 1936. He passed away in 2002. 

Lena Horne was born in 1917.  

Legendary American bass player Stanley Clarke is 72. 

Iron Maiden drummer Doug Sampson is 66. 

Florence Ballard, of The Supremes, was born in 1943. She died of a heart attack in February 1976 at the age of 32. 

Tum Drummond, bassist with Better Than Erza, is 54.  

T-Pain is 39.  

Matisyahu is 44. 

K.Flay, singer, songwriter, and rapper is 38. 

Philip Anselmo, of Pantera and Down, is 55. 

Highlights for Today in Music History are gathered from This Day in Music, Song Facts and Wikipedia.