History Highlight:

Today in 2009, at a ceremony at the White House, President Barack Obama honored Stevie Wonder, his musical hero, with America's highest award for pop music, the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize. The president said the Motown legend had been the soundtrack to his youth and he doubted that his wife would have married him if he hadn't been a fan. Wonder's song 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered' had been the theme song during Obama's presidential campaign.

Also, Today In:

1957 - Buddy Holly and The Crickets taped "That'll Be The Day" at their first session with producer Norman Petty at his studio in the eastern New Mexico town of Clovis. It would become Holly's biggest hit, rising to No. 2 on the singles chart.

1967 - The Spencer Davis Group peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Gimme Some Lovin'" which was their first top ten single in the U.S.

1972 - Led Zeppelin appeared in front of more than 25,000 fans at the Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand, the group's first ever gig in New Zealand (and the largest crowd ever to attend a concert on the island). News reviews the next day reported the band could be heard more than five miles from the stadium.

1980 - Bob Seger released his eleventh studio album Against the Wind which was his third album with The Silver Bullet Band. The album went on to reach number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and sell five million copies in the U.S.

1984 - "Jump" by Van Halen started a five-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart. The song was released in December 1983 as the lead single from their album 1984 and is Van Halen's most successful single to date, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Fun fact: David Lee Roth dedicated the song to martial artist Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, of whom he was a student.

1985 - U2 launched their first full-scale arena tour of North America, starting at the Dallas Reunion Arena in Texas.

1995 - Madonna started a 7-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "Take A Bow". The track, which was co-written with Babyface, became a No. 16 hit in the U.K.

1995 - At a private party for 1,200 select guests on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Frank Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. His closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".

1998 - Bob Dylan won three Grammys, including one for Best Album for Time Out Of Mind. During Dylan's performance of the song "Love Sick," Michael Portnoy, hired as a background dancer, ripped his shirt off and jumped in among the band, revealing the words "Soy Bomb" painted on his chest.

2007 - Kaiser Chiefs went to No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart with "Ruby", taken from their second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob.

2012 - Blues musician Louisiana Red died at the age of 79 in Hanover, Germany.

2019 - Publicist and talent manager Kenneth Pitt died at the age of 96. He managed the career of musicians including David Bowie in the late 1960s (Pitt managed Bowie at the time of his first hit, 'Space Oddity' in 1969), and was responsible for publicizing American musicians and bands touring the U.K. including Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

2019 - Mark Hollis, English musician and singer-songwriter, died at age 64. He achieved commercial success and critical acclaim in the 1980s and 1990s as the co-founder, lead singer and principal songwriter of the band Talk Talk. Hollis wrote or co-wrote most of Talk Talk's music, including hits like 'It's My Life' (1984) and 'Life's What You Make It' (1986).

Birthdays:

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley of the Stanley Brothers was born today in 1927.

Faron Young (“Hello Walls”) was born today in 1932.

George Harrison was born today in 1943.

John Doe of X is 71.

Stuart Wood of the Bay City Rollers is 67.

Mike Peters of The Alarm is 65.

Brian Baker of Minor Threat is 59.

Daniel Powter (“Bad Day”) is 53.

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