Samuel (Sam) Phillips was born on January 5, 1923 near Florence, Alabama (USA). As a kid he helped his parents pick cotton on their farm along side of Black laborers and was really struck by their singing. Later he got a brief taste of Memphis' Beale Street music scene. In the Forties he was first a DJ and engineer at station WLAY in Muscle Shoals, AL and then an announcer and sound engineer at WREC in Memphis, TN. In 1950 he opened a recording studio which came to record a long list of greats, selling the recordings to larger labels and in 1952 he started his own label, the now justifiably famous SUN Records. in between, in 1951 he recorded Rocket 88, by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats, held by many to be the first "Rock and Roll" record. He also, eventually started Radio Station WHER, the first all female radio station in the US. You really should take a look at his Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Phillips - to fully appreciate and understand his huge impact on Music, Blues, R&B, and Rock and Roll.

On this day in history:

1477 – The Battle of Nancy where Charles the Bold was defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine. Burgundy subsequently became part of France. Sluggo was not involved, that was a different Nancy.

1781 – Richmond, Virginia, was burned by British naval forces led by former American general Benedict Arnold.

1875 – The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, was inaugurated in Paris.

1895 – French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

1900 – Irish nationalist leader John Edward Redmond called for revolt against British rule. An Irishman called for a revolt against Britain, fancy that.

1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third-oldest and largest black fraternity, was founded at Indiana University. As of this writing it has not been outlawed by executive order or investigated by either the FBI or DOJ as a potential terrorist organization.

1912 – Vladimir Lenin and his supporters formed the Bolshevik movement.

1914 – The Ford Motor Company announced an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses.

1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, was founded in Munich.

1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor in the US

1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began

1944 – The Daily Mail became the first major London newspaper to be published on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

1949 – United States President Harry S. Truman unveiled his Fair Deal program.

1953 – The play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett premiered in Paris.

1957 – President Eisenhower announced the establishment of what would later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine. This became the underpinning of the US policy of waging wars or fomenting proxy wars and coup's de etat to prevent elections where somebody to the left of Mussolini might win, or to bring about "regime change" where such a person did win.

1967 – The Shanghai People's Commune was established following the seizure of power from local city officials by revolutionaries.

1968 – Alexander Dubček cames to power in Czechoslovakia, effectively beginning the "Prague Spring".

1972 – US President Richard Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program.

1976 – The Khmer Rouge announced that the new Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea was ratified.

1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–92 South Ossetia War.

1991 – The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu was evacuated by helicopter airlift days after the outbreak of violence in Mogadishu.

1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer ran aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.

2005 – The dwarf planet Eris was discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time. True to the nature of the goddess Eris, Pluto was demoted and things have generally gone to hell ever since

2022 – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismissed Prime Minister Asqar Mamin and declared a state of emergency over the 2022 Kazakh unrest, a failed attempt at a color revolution.

2024 – Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a door plug blew off the Boeing 737 MAX 9 operating the flight. The accident prompted the 737 MAX to be grounded and renewed scrutiny of Boeing's manufacturing and design issues.

Some people who were born on this day:

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.

~~ Umbereto Eco

1587 – Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer and explorer (died 1641)[43]
1640 – Paolo Lorenzani, composer
1767 – Jean-Baptiste Say, father of so-called supply side economics
1779 – Zebulon Pike, explorer
1838 – Camille Jordan, mathematician
1871 – Frederick Converse, composer
1874 – Joseph Erlanger, physiologist and academic
1880 – Nikolai Medtner, pianist and composer
1881 – Pablo Gargallo, Spanish culptor and painter
1882 – Herbert Bayard Swope, journalist
1893 – Paramahansa Yogananda, yogi, guru, and philosopher
1900 – Yves Tanguy, painter
1902 – Hubert Beuve-Méry, Journalist
1902 – Stella Gibbons, journalist and author
1903 – Harold Gatty, pilot and navigator
1904 – Jeane Dixon, astrologer and psychic, advisor to the Nixon Whitehouse
1904 – Erika Morini, violinist
1906 – Kathleen Kenyon, archaeologist and academic
1909 – Lucienne Bloch, sculptor, painter, and photographer
1909 – Stephen Cole Kleene, mathematician and computer scientist
1919 – Severino Gazzelloni, flute player
1920 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, pianist and educator
1923 – Sam Phillips, radio host and producer, founded Sun Records
1926 – W. D. Snodgrass, poet
1931 – Alfred Brendel, pianist, poet, and author
1932 – Umberto Eco, novelist, literary critic, and philosopher
1934 – Phil Ramone, songwriter and producer, co-founded A & R Recording
1938 – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, uthor and playwright
1940 – Athol Guy, singer, songwriter, and bassist[127]
1942 – Maurizio Pollini, pianist and conductor
1950 – Chris Stein, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1953 – George Tenet, spook
1961 – Iris DeMent, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1969 – Marilyn Manson, singer, songwriter, actor, and director
1971 – Stian Carstensen, multi-instrumentalist and composer
1972 – Sakis Rouvas, singer-, songwriter, producer, and actor
1973 – Derek Cecil, American actor[172]
1981 – Deadmau5, musician

Some people who died on this day:

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the root of all the evil that is in the world

~~ Max Born

1578 – Giulio Clovio, painter
1713 – Jean Chardin, explorer and author
1740 – Antonio Lotti, composer and educator
1845 – Robert Smirke, painter and illustrator
1883 – Charles Tompson, poet and public servant
1885 – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, author and scholar
1888 – Henri Herz, pianist and composer
1899 – Ezra Otis Kendall, professor, astronomer and mathematician
1904 – Karl Alfred von Zittel, paleontologist and geologist
1922 – Ernest Shackleton, sailor and explorer
1942 – Tina Modotti, photographer, model, actress, and activist
1943 – George Washington Carver, botanist, educator, and inventor
1951 – Soh Jaipil, journalist and activist
1951 – Andrei Platonov, journalist and author
1952 – Hristo Tatarchev, physician and activist
1970 – Max Born, physicist and mathematician
1970 – Roberto Gerhard, composer and scholar
1971 – Douglas Shearer, sound designer and engineer
1974 – Lev Oborin, pianist and educator
1978 – Wyatt Emory Cooper, author and screenwriter
1979 – Charles Mingus, bassist, composer, bandleader
1981 – Harold Urey, chemist and astronomer
1981 – Lanza del Vasto, poet, activist, and philosopher
1987 – Margaret Laurence, author and academic
1997 – Burton Lane, composer and songwriter
1998 – Sonny Bono, singer, songwriter, producer, actor, and politician
2004 – Norman Heatley, biologist and chemist, co-developed penicillin
2007 – Momofuku Ando, businessman and inventor, founded Nissin Foods
2010 – Willie Mitchell, singer, songwriter, trumpet player, and producer
2010 – Kenneth Noland, painter
2012 – Isaac Díaz Pardo, painter and sculptor
74
2016 – Pierre Boulez, pianist, composer, and conductor
2017 – Jill Saward, rape victim and activist
2018 – Thomas Bopp, astronomer best known as the co-discoverer of comet Hale–Bopp
2019 – Bernice Sandler, women's rights activist
2021 – John Georgiadis, violinist and composer

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

George Washington Carver Day
Thank God It's Monday Day
This half-baked idea was the creation of a private individual, acting alone, and is "celebrated" on the First Monday of both January and June. Your mileage may vary.

Today's Tunes

SUN Records

ETC.

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

EDIT- Corrected Memphis TX (where?) to Memphis TX (oh yeah, that place)

Open Thread, Sam Phillips Birthday, SUN Records, Battle of Nancy, Dreyfus, Eisenhower Doctrine, BB King, Elvis, Howlin Wolf, Rocket 88, Roy Orbison, Little Milton, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Bill Justis