TODAY IN HISTORY: Farm Aid I
In 1985, the first Farm Aid concert, organized by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp was held in Champaign, Illinois. Other performers included Alabama, The Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Jimmy Buffett, John Denver and Roy Orbison. The event raised $9 million to help U.S. farmers.
In 1692, Giles Cory, one of nine witches executed at Salem, Mass., was the last to be “pressed” to death. The others were hanged. During the infamous witch trials, 13 women and seven men were executed, and more than 150 others were put in jail.
In 1911, pitcher Cy Young won his 511th and last baseball game. Annual pitching awards are presented in his honour in both leagues.
In 1914, a German submarine sank three British cruisers, killing 1,400 crewmen.
In 1964, the musical “Fiddler on the
Roof,” starring Zero Mostel, opened at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. The show ran for 3,242 performances — until July 3, 1972 — a record at the time for a musical in the U.S. The show won nine Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Leading Acotr (Zero Mostel).
In 1989, Irving Berlin, one of America’s greatest songwriters, died in New York at the age of 101. He wrote “White
Christmas,” “God Bless America,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” and so many other classics over a 60-year career. In 1982, Indoensian pop singer Taco scored a No. 4 hit in the U.S. with a remake of Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
In 2010, pop singer Eddie Fisher, whose clear voice brought him a devoted following of teenage girls in the early 1950s, died at his home in Berkeley, Calif., of complications from hip surgery. He was 82. He was married five times and had four children, the oldest was actress Carrie Fisher.
In 2015, German carmaker Volkswagen AG stunningly admitted about 11 million diesel vehicles built since 2008 were intentionally fitted with software programmed to evade emissions controls.