What happened on January 25
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1858168 yrs ago
A royal bride makes Mendelssohn's Wedding March a hit
Queen Victoria's eldest daughter chose the march, written in 1842 for A Midsummer Night's Dream, for her wedding to Prussia's Prince Frederick William. Couples have walked to it ever since.
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1909117 yrs ago
Richard Strauss's Elektra premieres in Dresden
Built on Hugo von Hofmannsthal's retelling of Sophocles, the one-act opera called for an orchestra of roughly 110 players and pushed harmony into harsh, dissonant territory.
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197551 yrs ago
The Carpenters top the Hot 100 with "Please Mr. Postman"
The duo's remake of the old Marvelettes song spent a single week at No. 1, taking over from Barry Manilow's "Mandy" before Neil Sedaka's "Laughter in the Rain" moved up.
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197650 yrs ago
Bob Dylan stages a Houston benefit for Hurricane Carter
The Rolling Thunder Revue played the Astrodome in a second concert backing imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter, with Ringo Starr and Stephen Stills joining Dylan's band and Stevie Wonder among the guest stars.
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199234 yrs ago
Color Me Badd score a second No. 1 with "All 4 Love"
The vocal group's single borrowed from the Mad Lads' 1966 soul song "Patch My Heart," and it turned out to be their final trip to the top.
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1759267 yrs ago
Robert Burns is born in Alloway, Scotland
Scotland's national poet gathered and reworked folk songs from across the country and wrote "Auld Lang Syne" in 1788. Burns Night suppers on his birthday still end with everyone singing it.
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192799 yrs ago
Antônio Carlos Jobim is born in Rio de Janeiro
The Brazilian composer wrote "Desafinado," "Corcovado" and "The Girl from Ipanema," a song recorded more than 240 times by other artists and a Grammy Record of the Year winner.
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193888 yrs ago
Etta James is born in Los Angeles
Born Jamesetta Hawkins, she made the old Glenn Miller tune "At Last" her signature song in 1961 and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
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198145 yrs ago
Alicia Keys is born in Manhattan
Raised in Hell's Kitchen, she broke through with "Fallin'," which spent six weeks at No. 1, and took home five Grammys in a single night for her debut album.
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199630 yrs ago
Rent creator Jonathan Larson dies at 35
An undiagnosed aortic dissection killed him just as his rock musical was starting off-Broadway previews. Rent went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and three Tonys, including Best Musical.
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201511 yrs ago
Greek singer Demis Roussos dies at 68
Once a member of the prog-rock band Aphrodite's Child, he found solo fame with the ballad "Forever and Ever" and sold over 60 million albums.
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