Beatles history, March 25 ...
• 1969, During their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hold their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel (until March 31).
Elvis Presley history, March 25 ...
• 1961, Elvis Presley performed what would be his last live concert for eight years, at a show in Hawaii. Instead, he concentrated on his movie career.
Rolling Stones history, March 25 ...
• 2016, The Rolling Stones unleashed two hours of thundering rock and roll on an ecstatic crowd of hundreds of thousands of Cubans and foreign visitors in Havana. The free concert came two days after President Barack Obama concluded his historic visit to Cuba.
Music/entertainment history, March 25 ...
• 1699, Composer Johann Adolph Hasse was born.
• 1784, Composer Francois-Joseph Fetis was born.
• 1811, Writer Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet “The Necessity of Atheism.”
• 1852, Friedrich Hebbel’s “Agnes Bernauer” premiered in Munich.
• 1881, Composer Bela Bartok was born.
• 1918, French composer Claude Debussy died in Paris at age 55.
• 1931, Hal Kemp and his orchestra recorded “Whistles” with Skinnay Ennis.
• 1942, Singer Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tenn. She died on Aug. 16, 2018, at the age of 76.
• 1949, Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet wins five Oscars. It is the first Academy Award-winning British film.
• 1954, “From Here To Eternity” won the best picture award at the Oscars. William Holden won best actor for “Stalag 17.” Audrey Hepburn won best actress for “Roman Holiday.” The best song award went to “Secret Love” from “Calamity Jane.”
• 1957, U.S. Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” on the grounds of obscenity.
• 1960, Ray Charles recorded “Georgia on My Mind” as part of his “The Genius Hits the Road” album in New York.
• 1960, Roy Orbison recorded “Only the Lonely.”
• 1960, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, ruled that the D.H. Lawrence novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was not obscene and could be sent through the mails.
• 1963, The Beach Boys released the album “Surfin’ U.S.A.”
• 1967, The Who made its U.S. concert debut in New York as part of a rock extravaganza promoted by DJ Murray “The K” Kaufman.
• 1968, The 58th and final episode of “The Monkees” TV show was aired.
• 1975, The Jimi Hendrix live album “Band of Gypsys” was released.
• 1985, The Academy Award for best picture went to “Amadeus.” F. Murray Abraham was chosen over “Amadeus” co-star Tom Hulce for the best actor award. Prince won the original song score award for “Purple Rain.” Stevie Wonder won best original song for “I Just Called To Say I Love You.”
• 1990, Drummer Tommy Lee of Motley Crue was arrested for allegedly mooning an audience at a concert in Augusta, Ga.
• 1991, “Dances With Wolves” won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and a best director Oscar for Kevin Costner. The best picture category at the 63rd annual Academy Awards also included “Goodfellas.” Kathy Bates won best actress for “Misery” while Jeremy Irons received best actor for “Reversal of Fortune.” Michael Jackson escorted Madonna to the Oscars.
• 1995, Singer Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam was rescued after a riptide carried him 250 feet offshore in New Zealand.
• 1995, WikiWikiWeb, the world’s first wiki, and part of the Portland Pattern Repository, is made public by Ward Cunningham.
• 2001, At the 73rd Academy Awards, “Gladiator” won five awards including best picture. Its star, Russell Crowe, was named best actor. Julia Roberts received the best actress Oscar for “Erin Brockovich.” Steven Soderbergh won best director for “Traffic.”
• 2002, Halle Berry won the best actress Oscar and Denzel Washington won the best actor Oscar. Before that night, Sidney Poitier was the only African American actor to have won an Oscar in a lead role.
• 2002, Randy Newman won an Oscar for best original song for “If I Didn’t Have You” from “Monsters, Inc.” He had been nominated for an Oscar 16 times and had never won until that night.
• 2003, Celine Dion launched her Las Vegas show “A New Day.”
• 2004, The Georgia House of Representatives voted 134-0 to name a stretch of Interstate 85 for country music star Alan Jackson. The honor had already passed the Senate.
• 2006, Country music star Buck Owens died in Bakersfield, Calif., at age 76.
• 2009, Dan Seals, half of the pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, later a top country singer (“You Still Move Me”), died in Nashville at age 61.
• 2015, British singer Zayn Malik shocked his fans by announcing he was quitting the chart-topping band One Direction.
• 2017, Stars and fans gathered for a public memorial to honor late actresses Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.
• 2022, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died of a drug overdose in Bogatá, Colombia, shortly before the band were scheduled to perform. He was 50 years old.
• 2022, New Orleans’ school board unanimously reversed a little known but century-old ban on jazz.
