Today in 1956, Elvis Presley had his first number one song:

Today in 1965, Ford Motor Co. began offering eight-track tape players in their cars. Since eight-track tape players for home audio weren’t available yet, car owners had to buy eight-track tapes at auto parts stores.

Today in 1970, Vice President Spiro Agnew said in a speech that the youth of America were being “brainwashed into a drug culture” by rock music, movies, books and underground newspapers.

I would say something about how all that ended, but that’s way too easy. (Besides, it would require me to speak ill of a fellow coreligionist.)

The number one single today in 1973:

The short list of birthdays begins with Ola Brunkert, who played drums for ABBA (but wasn’t a member of the group, which otherwise have been called ABBBA):

Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger:

Michel Dodge of the, mmmmm, Crash Test Dummies:

Drummer Paul Thomson of Franz Ferdinand:

Today in 1991, your favorite blogger had one persuasive moment in his life. Thirteen months later came …

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