Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1958

Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 1
  • European Economic Community (EEC) founded.
  • First Carrefour store opens, in Annecy.
• January 4 – Sputnik 1 (launched on October 4, 1957) falls to Earth from its orbit and burns up.
• January 8 – 14-year-old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.
• January 18
  • Armed Lumbee Indians confront a handful of Klansmen in Maxton, North Carolina.
  • The first of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic is telecast by CBS. The Emmy-winning series (one concert approximately every three months except for the summer) will run for more than fourteen years. It will make Bernstein's name a household word, and the most famous conductor in the U.S.
• January 20 – Anne de Vries releases the fourth and final volume of Journey Through the Night.
• January 28 – Hall of Fame baseball player Roy Campanella is involved in an automobile accident that ends his career and leaves him paralyzed.
• January 31 – The first successful American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit.

February[link]

• February 1 – Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.
• February 2 – The word Aerospace is coined, from the words Aircraft (aero) and Spacecraft (space), taking into consideration that the Earth's atmosphere and outerspace is to be one, or a single realm.
• February 5
  • Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated as the first president of the United Arab Republic.
  • The Tybee Bomb, a 7,600 pound (3,500 kg) Mark 15 hydrogen bomb, is lost in the waters off Savannah, Georgia.
• February 6 – Seven Manchester United footballers are among the 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster in West Germany on the return flight from a European Cup game in Yugoslavia. 23 people survive, but four of them, including manager Matt Busby and players Johnny Berry and Duncan Edwards, are in a serious condition.^[1]
• February 11
  • The strongest ever known solar maximum is recorded.^[2]
  • Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Zhou Enlai as Chinese Minister of Foreign affairs.
  • Ruth Carol Taylor is the first African American woman hired as a flight attendant. Hired by Mohawk Airlines, her career lasts only six months, due to another discriminatory barrier – the airline's ban on married flight attendants.
• February 14 – The Hashemite Kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan unite in the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan with Iraqi King Faisal II as head of state.
• February 17 – Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare the patron saint of television.
• February 20 – A test rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral.
• February 21 – A peace symbol is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom, commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
• February 23
  • Cuban rebels kidnap five-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio, releasing him 28 hours later.
  • Arturo Frondizi is elected president of Argentina.
• February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.
• February 25 – Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
• February 28 – One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurs at Prestonburg, Kentucky; 29 are killed.

March[link]

• March 1 – The Turkish passenger ship Uskudar capsizes and sinks at Izmit Bay, Kocaeli, Turkey; at least 300 die.
• March 2 – A British team led by Sir Vivian Fuchs completes the first crossing of the Antarctic in snowcat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams in 99 days.
• March 8 – The USS Wisconsin is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (it is recommissioned October 22, 1988).
• March 11 – A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure several people, but no nuclear fission occurs.
• March 17 – Convention on the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) enters into force, founding the IMCO as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• March 17 – The United States launches the Vanguard 1 satellite.
• March 19 – Monarch Underwear Company fire in New York.
• March 24 – The U.S. Army inducts Elvis Presley, transforming The King Of Rock & Roll into U.S. private #53310761.
• March 25 – Canada's Avro Arrow makes its debut flight.
• March 26
  • The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
  • The 30th Academy Awards ceremony takes place; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins seven awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.
• March 27 – Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.

April[link]

• April – Unemployment in Detroit reaches 20%, marking the height of the Recession of 1958 in the United States.
• April 1 – The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is established.
• April 3 – Castro's revolutionary army begins its attacks on Havana.
• April 4 – April 7 – In the first protest march for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from Hyde Park, London to Aldermaston, Berkshire, demonstrators demand the banning of nuclear weapons.
• April 4 – Cheryl Crane, daughter of actress Lana Turner, fatally stabs her mother's gangster lover Johnny Stompanato (the stabbing is eventually ruled as self-defense).
• April 6 – Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari divorces the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after she is unable to produce any children.
• April 14
  • The satellite Sputnik 2 disintegrates in space after several orbits.
  • Van Cliburn wins the Tchaikovsky International Competition for pianists in Moscow, breaking Cold War tensions.
• April 15 – The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8–0 at San Francisco's Seals Stadium, in the first Major League Baseball regular season game ever played in California.
• April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58. The Atomium forms the centrepiece.
• April 21 - United Airlines Flight 736 is involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force F-100F-5-NA Super Sabre jet fighter near Las Vegas, Nevada. All 49 persons in both aircraft are killed.

May[link]

• May 1
  • Arturo Frondizi becomes President of Argentina.
  • The Nordic Passport Union comes into force.
• May 9 – Actor-singer Paul Robeson, whose passport has been reinstated, sings in a sold-out one-man recital at Carnegie Hall. The recital is such a success that Robeson gives another one at Carnegie Hall a few days later; but, after this, Robeson is seldom seen in public in the United States again. His Carnegie Hall concerts are later released on records and on CD.
• May 10 – Interviewed in the Chave d'Ouro café, when asked about his rival António de Oliveira Salazar, Humberto Delgado utters one of the most famous comments in Portuguese political history: "Obviamente, demito-o! (Obviously, I'll sack him!)".
• May 12 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
• May 13
  • French Algerian protesters seize government offices in Algiers, leading to a military coup.
  • During a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, Vice President Richard M. Nixon's car is attacked by anti-American demonstrators.
• May 15 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.
  • MGM's Gigi opens in New York City, beginning its run in the U.S. after being shown at the Cannes film festival. The last of the great MGM musicals, it will become a huge critical and box office success and win nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. Gigi is Lerner and Loewe's first musical written especially for film, and is deliberately written in a style evoking the team's My Fair Lady, which was still playing on Broadway at the time and could not be filmed yet.
• May 18 – An F-104 Starfighter sets a world speed record of 1,404.19 mph (2,259.82 km/h).
• May 20 – Fulgencio Batista's government launches a counteroffensive against Castro's rebels.
• May 21 – United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.^[3]
• May 23 – Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
• May 30 – The bodies of unidentified United States soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War are buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

June[link]

• June 1
  • Charles de Gaulle is brought out of retirement to lead France by decree for 6 months.
  • Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).
• June 2 – In San Simeon, California, Hearst Castle opens to the public for guided tours.^[4]
• June 4 – French President Charles De Gaulle visits Algeria.
• June 8 – The SS Edmund Fitzgerald is launched; she will be the largest Lake freighter for more than a dozen years.
• June 16 – Imre Nagy is hanged for treason in Hungary.
• June 20 – The iron barque Omega of Callao, Peru (built in Scotland, 1887), sinks on passage carrying guano from the Pachacamac Islands for Huacho, the world’s last full rigged ship trading under sail alone.^[5]
• June 27 – The Peronist Party becomes legal again in Argentina.
• June 29 – Brazil beats Sweden 5–2 to win the football World Cup.

July[link]

• July 5 – Gasherbrum I, the 11th highest mountain in the world, is first ascended.
• July 7
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
  • The first International House of Pancakes (IHOP) opens in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles.
• July 9 – A 7.5 Richter scale earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska, causes a landslide that produces a huge 520-meter high wave.
• July 10 – The first parking meters are installed in Britain.
• July 11 – Count Michael Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde, direct descendant of Samuel Aba, King of Hungary, at the age of 60 is pistol-whipped and murdered over a few hectares of land by Czechoslovak Communists during the collectivization process at his residence in Olcsvar, Slovakia.
• July 12 - Henri Cornelis becomes Governor-General of the Belgian Congo. He was the last Belgian governor of the Congo prior to independence.
• July 15 – In Lebanon, 5,000 United States Marines land in the capital Beirut in order to protect the pro-Western government there.
• July 17 – British paratroopers arrive in Jordan; King Hussein has asked help against pressure from Iraq.
• July 19 - The Beatles, then The Quarrymen, pay 17 shillings and 6 pence to have their first recording session where they record That'll Be The Day by Buddy Holly and In Spite Of All The Danger by Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
• July 20 – Various rebel groups in Cuba join forces but the communists do not join them.
• July 24 – The first life peerage under the Life Peerages Act 1958 is created in the United Kingdom.
• July 26
  • Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
  • Elizabeth II gives her son and heir apparent The Prince Charles the customary title of Prince of Wales.
• July 29 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• July 31 – Tibetan resistance movement against rule by China receives support from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

August[link]

• August 1 – The last Tom and Jerry episode (Tot Watchers) made by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera is released. Tom and Jerry will not be released to theatres again until 1961.
• August 3 – The nuclear powered submarine USS Nautilus becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.
• August 6 – Australian athlete Herb Elliott clips almost three seconds off the world record for the mile run at Santry Stadium, Dublin, recording a time of 3 minutes 54.5 seconds.
• August 14 – A 4-engine Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation aircraft belonging to KLM crashes into the sea with 99 people on board.
• August 17 – The first Thor-Able rocket is launched, carrying Pioneer 0, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17. The launch fails due to a first stage malfunction.
• August 18
  • Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
  • Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.
• August 23
  • Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
  • President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act, transferring all authority over aviation in the USA to the newly created Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).
• August 27 – Operation Argus: The United States begins nuclear tests over the South Atlantic.
• August 29 – Michael Jackson, King Of Pop entertainment legend is born in Gary, Indiana.
• August 30 – September 1 – Notting Hill race riots: Riots between blacks and whites in Notting Hill, London.^[6]

September[link]

• September 1 – The first Cod War begins between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
• September 6 – Paul Robeson performs in concert at the Soviet Young Pioneer camp Artek.
• September 12 – Jack Kilby invents the first integrated circuit.
• September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.
• September 27 – Typhoon Ida kills at least 1,269 in Honshū, Japan.
• September 28 – In France, a majority of 79% says yes to the constitution of the Fifth Republic.
• September 30 – The U.S.S.R. performs a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya.

October[link]

• October 1
  • Tunisia and Morocco join the Arab League.
  • NASA starts operations and replaces the NACA.
• October 2 – Guinea declares itself independent from France.
• October 4 – BOAC uses the new De Havilland Comet jets, to become the first airline to fly jet passenger services across the Atlantic.
• October 9 – Pope Pius XII dies.
• October 11 – Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of the 3 project Able space probes, becomes the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA.
• October 16 – First broadcast of the long-running BBC Television children's programme Blue Peter.^[7]
• October 21 – The Life Peerages Act entitles women to sit in the British House of Lords for the first time. The Baronesses Swanborough (Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading) and Wooton (Barbara Wooton) are the first to take their seats.
• October 26 – First transatlantic flight of a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707.
• October 28 – Pope John XXIII succeeds Pope Pius XII as the 261st pope.

November[link]

• November 3 – The new UNESCO building is inaugurated in Paris.
• November 10 – The Bossa nova is born in Rio de Janeiro, with João Gilberto's recording of Chega de Saudade.
• November 18 - The SS Carl D. Bradley sinks in a storm on Lake Michigan, killing 33 of the 35 crewmen on board.
• November 22 – The Menzies Liberal government in Australia is re-elected for a fifth term.
• November 23 - The radio version of Have Gun - Will Travel premieres. It is one of the last dramas to go on the air on commercial radio. Only some NPR stations will broadcast radio dramas in years to come.
• November 25 – French Sudan gains autonomy as a self-governing member of the French colonial empire.
• November 28 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French colonial empire.
• November 29 - Ted Kennedy marries Virginia Joan Bennett at St. Joseph's Church in Bronxville, New York.
• November 30 – Gaullists win the French parliamentary election.

December[link]

• December 1
  • Adolfo López Mateos takes office as President of Mexico.
  • Our Lady of the Angels School Fire: At least ninety students and three nuns are killed in a fire in Chicago.
• December 5
  • Subscriber trunk dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by the Queen, when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to the Lord Provost.^[8]
  • The Preston bypass, the United Kingdom's first motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. This stretch is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.
• December 6 – The 3rd launch of a Thor-Able rocket, carrying Pioneer 2, is unsuccessful due to a 3rd stage ignition failure.
• December 9 – The right-wing John Birch Society is founded in the USA by Robert Welch, a retired candy manufacturer.
• December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.
• December 15 – Arthur L. Schawlow and Charles H. Townes of Bell Laboratories publish a paper in Physical Review Letters setting out the principles of the optical laser.
• December 16 - A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in Bogota, Colombia and kills 84 persons.
• December 19 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcasts a message from a Project SCORE satellite.
• December 21 – General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of France with 78.5% of the votes.
• December 24 – A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England during a test flight.
• December 25 – Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker (the George Balanchine version) is shown on prime-time television in color for the first time, as an episode of the CBS anthology series Playhouse 90.
• December 28 – The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23–17 to win the NFL Championship Game, the first to go into sudden death overtime and "The Greatest Game Ever Played".^[9].
• December 29 – Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba. Fulgencio Batista resigns two days later, on the night of the 31st.
• December 31 – Tallies reveal that, for the first time, the total of passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea in transatlantic service.

Date unknown[link]

• Nikita Khrushchev orders Western allies to evacuate West Berlin within 6 months but backs down in the face of the allies' unity.
• USA, USSR and Great Britain agree to stop testing atomic bombs for 3 years.
• During the International Geophysical Year, Earth's magnetosphere is discovered.
• The last legal female genital cutting occurs in the United States.
• Denatonium, the bitterest substance known, is discovered. It is used as an aversive agent in products such as bleach to reduce the risk of children drinking them.
• The Jim Henson Company is founded.
• Instant noodles go on sale for the first time.
• The Japanese 10 yen coin ceases having serrated edges after a 5-year period beginning in 1953. All 10 yen coins since have smooth edges.
• The British Rally Championship begins its first year.
• The Amirkabir University of Technology is founded in Tehran.
• The University of New Orleans established
• Illinois observes the centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
• Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo is published posthumously.
• Welsh cultural critic Raymond Williams publishes Culture and Society.
• Based on birth rates (per 1,000 population), the post-war baby boom ends in the United States as an 11-year decline in the birth rate begins (the longest on record in that country).

Births[link]

January[link]

• January 1 – Grandmaster Flash, African-American hip-hop/rap DJ
• January 2 – Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian pianist
• January 4 – Matt Frewer, Canadian/American actor (Max Headroom)
• January 4 – James J. Greco, American businessman
• January 9 – Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish militant, would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II
• January 11 – Vicki Peterson, American rock musician
• January 13 – Ricardo Acuña, Chilean tennis player
• January 15 – Boris Tadić, Serbian president
• January 20 – Lorenzo Lamas, American actor, martial artist and reality show participant
• January 21 – Hussein Saeed Mohammed, Iraqi football player
• January 24 – Jools Holland, British musician
• January 25 – Dinah Manoff, American Tony-winning actress
• January 26 – Ellen DeGeneres, American actress and comedian
• January 27 – Kadri Mälk, Estonian artist and jewelry designer
• January 28 - Lagaf', French singer, humorist, animator TV and actor
• January 29 - Stephen Lerner, American labor and community activist

February[link]

• February 1 – Ryo Horikawa, Japanese voice actor
• February 4 – Tomasz Pacyński, Polish writer (d. 2005)
• February 8 – Sherri Martel, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• February 11
  • Michael Jackson, British broadcasting executive
  • Regina Maršíková, Czechoslovakian tennis player
• February 13 – Pernilla August, Swedish actress
• February 14
  • Grant Thomas, Australian rules footballer
  • Francisco Javier Lopez Pena, Basque separatist
• February 16 – Ice-T, African-American rapper, songwriter, and actor
• February 19 – Steve Nieve, English musician
• February 21
  • Jake Burns, Irish punk singer
  • Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
• February 25 – Kurt Rambis, American basketball player
• February 26 – Susan Helms, American astronaut
• February 27 – Max Crivello, Itallian artist
• February 28 – Natalya Estemirova, Russian activist (d. 2009)

March[link]

• March 1 – Nik Kershaw, English singer
• March 3 – Miranda Richardson, English actress
• March 5 – Andy Gibb, English-born singer (d. 1988)
• March 7
  • Rik Mayall, English comedian and actor
  • Donna Murphy, American actress and singer
• March 8 – Gary Numan, British singer
• March 9 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
• March 10
  • Steve Howe, American baseball player (d. 2006)
  • Sharon Stone, American actress and producer
• March 13 – Linda Robson, English actress
• March 14 – Albert II, Prince of Monaco
• March 18
  • Kayo Hatta, American film director (d. 2005)
  • John Elefante, American singer and producer (Kansas)
• March 20 – Holly Hunter, American actress
• March 21 – Gary Oldman, English actor and filmmaker
• March 25 – James McDaniel, American actor
• March 26 – Todd Joseph Miles Holden, American-born social scientist, author, basketball coach
• March 27 – Jessica Soho, Philippine television celebrity and reporter
• March 28
  • Bart Conner, American gymnast
  • Edesio Alejandro, Cuban music composer
  • Mr. Perfect, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)

April[link]

• April 3
  • Alec Baldwin, American actor (30 Rock)
  • Francesca Woodman, American photographer (d. 1981)
• April 4 – Cazuza, Brazilian poet, singer and composer (d. 1990)
• April 10
  • Yefim Bronfman, Russian-born pianist
  • Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, African-American musician and record producer
• April 11
  • Hussniya Jabara, Israeli Arab politician
  • Luc Luycx, Belgian coin designer
• April 12 – Ginka Zagorcheva, Bulgarian athlete
• April 15
  • Keith Acton, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • Benjamin Zephaniah, British writer and musician
• April 21 – Andie MacDowell, American actress
• April 24 – Brian Paddick, British former deputy assistant commissioner and most senior openly gay police officer
• April 25 – Fish, Scottish singer
• April 28 – Hal Sutton, American golfer
• April 29 – Michelle Pfeiffer, American actress

May[link]

• May 4 – Keith Haring, American artist
• May 10 – Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator
• May 11 – Christian Brando, American actor and eldest child of Marlon Brando (d. 2008)
• May 12
  • Dries Van Noten, Belgian designer
  • Eric Singer, American rock drummer
• May 15 – Ron Simmons, American professional wrestler
• May 18 – Toyah Willcox, English actress & singer
• May 20 – Ron Reagan, political pundit and son of U.S. president Ronald Reagan
• May 21 – Tom Feeney, American Republican politician from the state of Florida
• May 23
  • Mitch Albom, American author
  • Drew Carey, American comedian and actor
  • Lea DeLaria, American comedian and actress
• May 25
  • Paul Weller, English singer-songwriter
  • Carrie Newcomer, American Singer-Songwriter & Musician
• May 26 – Margaret Colin, American actress
• May 26 – Moinul Ahsan Saber, Bangladeshi writer, editor.
• May 27 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer and songwriter
• May 29
  • Annette Bening, American actress
  • Juliano Mer-Khamis, Israeli actor, director, filmmaker and political activist (d. 2011)
• May 30 – Marie Fredriksson, Swedish singer-songwriter

June[link]

• June 2 – Lex Luger, former American professional wrestler
• June 3 – Margot Käßmann, Lutheran theologian, German bishop
• June 4 – Gordon P. Robertson, American televangelist and son of Pat Robertson
• June 7 – Prince, American musician
• June 8
  • Cyril O'Reilly, American actor
  • Keenen Ivory Wayans, African-American comedian, actor, and director
• June 12
  • Rebecca Holden, American actress, singer, and entertainer
  • Meredith Brooks, American singer/songwriter and guitarist
• June 14
  • Masami Yoshida, Japanese athlete (d. 2000)
  • Eric Heiden, American speed skater
• June 15 – Wade Boggs, American baseball player
• June 17 – Jello Biafra, American punk musician and activist (Dead Kennedys)
• June 20 – Chuck Wagner, American actor
• June 22 – Bruce Campbell, American actor, producer, writer and director
• June 24
  • Curt Fraser, American ice hockey coach
  • John Tortorella, American ice hockey coach
• June 27 – Magnus Lindberg, Finnish composer
• June 28 – Félix Gray, French singer and songwriter
• June 29
  • Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
  • Rosa Mota, Portuguese long-distance runner
• June 30 – Esa-Pekka Salonen, Finnish conductor and composer

July[link]

• July 2 – Thomas Bickerton, American Methodist bishop
• July 3 – Didier Mouron, Swiss artist.
• July 5 – William Watterson, American cartoonist (Calvin and Hobbes)
• July 6 – Jennifer Saunders, British comedienne and actress
• July 7 – Michala Petri, Danish recorder player
• July 8
  • Kevin Bacon, American actor
  • Pauline Quirke, British actress
• July 15
  • Mac Thornberry, American politician
  • Austin Hayes, Irish footballer (d. 1986)
• July 16 – Michael Flatley, Irish-born dancer
• July 20 – Billy Mays, American infomercial salesperson (d. 2009)
• July 22 – Tatsunori Hara, Japanese professional-baseball coach and player
• July 28 – Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (d. 1981)
• July 30 – Kate Bush, British singer and songwriter
• July 31 – Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and basketball team owner

August[link]

• August 1 – Adrian Dunbar, Irish actor and director
• August 7
  • Bruce Dickinson, English musician (Iron Maiden)
  • Russell Baze, champion jockey
• August 10 – Don Swayze, American actor
• August 15 – Victor Shenderovich, Russian writer
• August 16
  • Madonna, American-born singer, songwriter, and actress
  • Angela Bassett, African-American actress
• August 17 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer
• August 19 – Anthony Muñoz, American football player
• August 20 – Nicholas Bell, English actor based in Australia
• August 22 – Colm Feore, American-born actor
• August 24 – Steve Guttenberg, American actor
• August 25 – Tim Burton, American film director
• August 27 – Normand Brathwaite, African-Canadian comedian and television and radio host
• August 29
  • Lenny Henry, British comedian
  • Michael Jackson, American singer, songwriter and dancer (d. 2009)

September[link]

• September 6
  • Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian, actor, author
  • Sione Vailahi, professional wrestler ("The Barbarian")
• September 8
  • Mitsuru Miyamoto, Japanese voice actor
  • Reiko Terashima, Japanese manga artist and illustrator
• September 10
  • Chris Columbus (filmmaker), American film director/writer/producer
  • Siobhan Fahey, Irish singer
• September 11 – Julia Nickson-Soul, Singapore actress
• September 13 – Pawel Przytocki, Polish conductor
• September 14
  • Michael Bollner, German actor
  • Jeff Crowe, New Zealand cricketer
• September 16
  • Orel Hershiser, American baseball player
  • Jennifer Tilly, Canadian/American actress
• September 19
  • Lita Ford, British musician
  • Azumah Nelson, Ghanaian boxer
• September 21 – Bruno Fitoussi, French poker player
• September 22
  • Andrea Bocelli, Italian tenor
  • Joan Jett, American musician
• September 23 – Marvin Lewis, American football coach
• September 24 – Kevin Sorbo, American actor
• September 25
  • Michael Madsen, American actor
  • Eamonn Healy, Irish chemist
• September 27 – Irvine Welsh, Scottish writer
• September 30 – Marty Stuart, American singer

October[link]

• October 14 – Thomas Dolby, English rock musician
• October 16 – Tim Robbins, American actor
• October 17 – Alan Jackson, American country singer and songwriter
• October 20
• October 24 - Vincent K. Brooks, American Lieutenant General
  • Viggo Mortensen, American actor
  • Mark King, British musician
  • Scott Hall, American professional wrestler
• October 25
  • Phil Daniels, English actor
  • Kornelia Ender, German swimmer
• October 27 – Simon Le Bon, English rock singer
• October 29 – Blazej Balaz, Slovak painter

November[link]

• November 2 – Willie McGee, African-American baseball player
• November 8 – Jeff Speakman, American actor and martial artst
• November 10 – Vicky Rosti, Finnish singer, former Eurovision contestant
• November 12 – Megan Mullally, American actress, singer and media personality
• November 14 - Donna Wilkes, American film actress
• November 16
  • Marg Helgenberger, American actress
  • Boris Krivokapić, Serbian academic
• November 17 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress and singer
• November 18 – Laura Miller, Mayor of Dallas, Texas
• November 19 – Michael Wilbon, American sportswriter
• November 21 – David Reivers, Jamaican actor
• November 22
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress
  • Bruce Payne, English actor and producer
• November 25 - Darlanne Fluegel, American actress
• November 27 – Tetsuya Komuro, Japanese music producer and song writer
• November 28 – Dave Righetti, American baseball player
• November 30 – Juliette Bergmann, Dutch bodybuilder

December[link]

• December 1
  • Charlene Tilton, American actress
  • Javier Aguirre, Mexican football player and manager
• December 5 – Dynamite Kid, English professional wrestler
• December 6
  • Nick Park, English filmmaker and animator
  • Debbie Rowe, Ex-wife of pop star Michael Jackson, and the mother of two of his children
• December 10 – Cornelia Funke, German author
• December 11 – Nikki Sixx, American rock musician
• December 12
  • Monica Attard, Australian journalist
  • Lucie Guay, Canadian canoer
  • Dag Ingebrigtsen, Norwegian musician
  • Sheree J. Wilson, American actress
• December 13 – Lynn-Holly Johnson, American ice skater and actress
• December 14
  • Mike Scott, Scottish singer-songwriter (The Waterboys)
  • Spider Stacy, English musician (The Pogues)
  • François Zocchetto, French politician
• December 21 – Kevin Blackwell, English football manager
• December 25
  • Hanford Dixon, American football player
  • Rickey Henderson, African-American baseball player
• December 28 – Twila Paris, American Christian musician
• December 29 – Lakhdar Belloumi, Algerian football player
• December 31 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress

Date unknown[link]

• Helena Klakocar, Dutch cartoonist
• Yoshiteru Otani, Japanese cartoonist

Deaths[link]

January–March[link]

• January 1
  • Edward Weston, American photographer (b. 1886)
  • Archibald Alphonso Alexander, American designer/governor (b. 1888)
• January 7 – Margaret Anglin, stage actress (b. 1876)
• January 8 – Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (b. 1883)
• January 11 – Edna Purviance, American actress (b. 1895)
• January 13 – Jesse L. Lasky, American film produer (b. 1880)
• January 16 – Aubrey Mather, English actor (b. 1885)
• January 19 – Cândido Rondon, Brazilian military officer (b. 1865)
• January 30 – Jean Crotti, Swiss artist (b. 1878)
• February 1 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• February 2 – Walter Kingsford, English actor (b. 1881)
• February 4
  • Monta Bell, American actor (b. 1891)
  • Henry Kuttner, American author (b. 1915)
• February 6
  • Geoff Bent (b. 1932)
  • Roger Byrne (b. 1929)
  • Eddie Colman (b. 1936)
  • Mark Jones (b. 1933)
  • David Pegg (b. 1935)
  • Tommy Taylor (b. 1932)
  • Liam "Billy" Whelan (b. 1935), all footballers that perished in the Munich air disaster
• February 10 – Aleksander Klumberg, Estonian decathlete (b. 1899)
• February 13
  • Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (b. 1880)
  • Georges Rouault, French painter (b. 1871)
  • Helen Twelvetrees, American actress (b. 1908)
• February 17 – Marguerite Snow, American actress (b. 1889)
• February 20 – Thurston Hall, American actor (b. 1882)
• February 21 – Duncan Edwards English footballer (b. 1936), injury in the Munich air disaster
• February 27 – Harry Cohn, American film producer (b. 1891)
• March 11 – Princess Ingeborg of Denmark (b. 1878)
• March 20 – Adegoke Adelabu, Nigerian politician (b. 1915) (car crash)
• March 21 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American writer (b. 1923)
• March 22 (in plane crash)
  • Mike Todd, American film producer (b. 1909)
  • Art Cohn, American screenwriter (b. 1909)
• March 24 – Herbert Fields, American librettist and screenwriter (b. 1897)
• March 25 – Tom Brown, American musician (b. 1888)
• March 26 – Phil Mead, English cricketer (b. 1887)
• March 28 – W. C. Handy, African-American blues composer (b. 1873)

April–June[link]

• April 2 – Willie Maley, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1868)
• April 8 – George Jean Nathan, American drama critic (b. 1882)
• April 15 – Estelle Taylor, American actress (b. 1894)
• April 16 – Rosalind Franklin, British crystallographer (b. 1920)
• April 19 – Billy Meredith, Welsh footballer (b. 1874)
• May 2 – Henry Cornelius, South African-born director (b. 1913)
• May 3 – Frank Foster, English cricketer (b. 1889)
• May 7 – Mihkel Lüdig, Estonian composer, organist and choir conductor (b. 1880)
• May 18 – Jacob Fichman, Israeli poet and essayist (b. 1881)
• May 19 – Ronald Colman, English actor (b. 1891)
• May 26 – Constantin Cantacuzino, Romanian aviator (b. 1905)
• May 29 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• June 6
  • Lloyd Hughes, American actor (b. 1897)
  • Virginia Pearson, American actress (b. 1886)
• June 9 – Robert Donat, English actor (b. 1905)
• June 13 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (b. 1887)
• June 16
  • Aleksandr Chervyakov, Prime Minister of the Byelorussian SSR (suicide) (b. 1892)
  • Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of Hungary (executed) (b. 1896)
• June 20 – Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
• June 21
  • Herbert Brenon, American film director (b. 1880)
  • Robert L. Ghormley, American admiral (b. 1883)
• June 26 – George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1876)
• June 28 – Alfred Noyes, English poet (b. 1880)

July–September[link]

• July 2 – Martha Boswell, American singer (b. 1905)
• July 9 – James H. Flatley, American naval aviator and admiral (b. 1906)
• July 14 (killed during coup d'état):
  • King Faisal II of Iraq (b. 1935)
  • 'Abd al-Ilah, former regent of Iraq (b. 1913)
• July 15 – Julia Lennon, English mother of John Lennon (b. 1914)
• July 18 – Henry Farman, pioneer French aviator and aircraft company founder (b. 1874)
• July 20 – Franklin Pangborn, American actor (b. 1889)
• July 24 – Mabel Ballin, American actress (b. 1887)
• July 26 – Iven Carl Kincheloe, Jr., American Korean War fighter ace and test pilot (b. 1928)
• July 27
  • Claire Lee Chennault, American aviator and general, leader of the Flying Tigers (b. 1893)
  • Harry Warner, American studio executive (b. 1881)
• July 30 – William A. Glassford, American admiral (b. 1886)
• August 3 – Peter Collins, Formula 1 driver (b. 1931)
• August 8 – Barbara Bennett, American actress (b. 1906)
• August 14
  • Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1900)
  • Gladys Presley, American, mother of Elvis Presley (b. 1912)
• August 16 – Paul Panzer, German actor (b. 1872)
• August 18 – Bonar Colleano, American actor (b. 1924)
• August 22 – Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
• August 24 – Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
• August 26 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
• August 27 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
• September 11
  • Hans Grundig, German artist (b. 1901)
  • Robert W. Service, Scottish-born Canadian poet (b. 1874)
• September 16 – Alma Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
• September 23 – Alfred Piccaver, British-American operatic tenor (b. 1884)

October–December[link]

• October 9 – Pope Pius XII (b. 1876)
• October 17
  • Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876)
  • Paul Outerbridge American photographer (b. 1896)
• October 15 – Jack Norton, American actor (b. 1882)
• October 24 – G. E. Moore, British philosopher of (Principia Ethica) (b. 1873)
• October 27 – Marshall Neilan, American actor and director (b. 1891)
• October 29 – Zoë Akins, American playwright, poet, and author (b. 1886)
• November 15
  • Samuel Hopkins Adams, American writer (b. 1871)
  • Tyrone Power, American actor (b. 1914)
• November 19 – Vittorio Ambrosio, Italian general (b. 1879)
• November 21 – Mel Ott, American baseball player (b. 1909)
• November 24
  • Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1864)
  • Harry Parke, American comedian (b. 1904)
• November 27 – Artur Rodziński, Polish conductor (b. 1892)
• November 30 – Oscar C. Badger II, American admiral (b. 1890)
• December 1 – Boots Mallory, American actress (b. 1913)
• December 8 – Tris Speaker, American baseball player (b. 1888)
• December 12 – Albert Walsh, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1900)
• December 13 – Tim Moore, American comedian (b. 1887)
• December 15 – Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• December 21 – H.B. Warner, English actor (b. 1875)
• December 29 – Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1895)

Nobel Prizes[link]

• Physics – Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm
• Chemistry – Frederick Sanger
• Physiology or Medicine – George Wells Beadle, Edward Lawrie Tatum, Joshua Lederberg
• Literature – Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
• Peace – Georges Pire

References[link]

Chuck Berry
Berry in Örebro, Sweden, on July 18, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Charles Edward Anderson Berry
Born	(1926-10-18) October 18, 1926 (age 85) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres	Rock and roll, blues, rhythm and blues
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1955–present
Labels	Chess, Mercury, Atco
Website	www.chuckberry.com
Notable instruments
Gibson ES-355

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.^[1]

Born into a middle class family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he served a prison sentence for armed robbery between 1944 and 1947. On his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of blues player T-Bone Walker, he was performing in the evenings with the Johnnie Johnson Trio.^[2] His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955, and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. With Chess he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart. By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name as well as a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand. But in January 1962, Berry was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines.^[2][3][4]

After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine", but these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic live performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality.^[2] His insistence on being paid cash led to a jail sentence in 1979—four months and community service for tax evasion.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986, with the comment that he "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance."^[5] Berry is included in several Rolling Stone "Greatest of All Time" lists, including being ranked fifth on their 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[6] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll included three of Chuck Berry's songs: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music".^[7] Today – at the age of 85 – Berry continues to play live.

Early life and apprenticeship with Johnnie Johnson (1926–54)[link]

Born in St. Louis, Missouri,^[8] Berry was the fourth child in a family of six. He grew up in the north St. Louis neighborhood known as "The Ville," an area where many middle class St. Louis people lived at the time. His father, Henry, was a contractor and deacon of a nearby Baptist church, his mother Martha a certified public school principal. His middle class upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age and he gave his first public performance in 1941 while still at Sumner High School.^[9] Just three years later, in 1944, while still at Sumner High School, he was arrested and convicted of armed robbery after robbing three shops in Kansas City and then stealing a car at gunpoint with some friends.^[10][11] Berry's own account in his autobiography is that his car broke down and he then flagged down a passing car and stole it at gunpoint with a non-functional pistol.^[12][13] Berry was sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men at Algoa, near Jefferson City, Missouri,^[8] where he formed a singing quartet and did some boxing.^[10]

After his release from prison on his 21st birthday in 1947, Berry married Themetta "Toddy" Suggs on October 28, 1948, who gave birth to Darlin Ingrid Berry on October 3, 1950.^[14] Berry supported his family doing a number of jobs in St. Louis: working briefly as a factory worker at two automobile assembly plants, as well as being janitor for the apartment building where he and his wife lived. Afterwards he trained as a beautician at the Poro College of Cosmetology, founded by Annie Turnbo Malone.^[15] He was doing well enough by 1950 to buy a "small three room brick cottage with a bath" in Whittier Street,^[16] which is now listed as the Chuck Berry House on the National Register of Historic Places.^[17]

By the early 1950s, Berry was working with local bands in the clubs of St. Louis as an extra source of income.^[16] He had been playing the blues since his teens, and he borrowed both guitar riffs and showmanship techniques from blues player T-Bone Walker,^[18] as well as taking guitar lessons from his friend Ira Harris that laid the foundation for his guitar style.^[19] By early 1953 Berry was performing with Johnnie Johnson's trio, starting a long-time collaboration with the pianist.^[20] Although the band played mostly blues and ballads, the most popular music among whites in the area was country. Berry wrote, "Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of our country stuff on our predominantly black audience and some of our black audience began whispering 'who is that black hillbilly at the Cosmo?' After they laughed at me a few times they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it."^[8]

Berry's calculated showmanship, along with mixing country tunes with R&B tunes, and singing in the style of Nat "King" Cole to the music of Muddy Waters, brought in a wider audience, particularly affluent white people.^[2][21]

Signing with Chess: "Maybellene" to "Come On" (1955–62)[link]

In May 1955, Berry traveled to Chicago where he met Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Berry thought his blues material would be of most interest to Chess, but to his surprise it was an old country and western recording by Bob Wills, entitled "Ida Red" that got Chess's attention. Chess had seen the rhythm and blues market shrink and was looking to move beyond it, and he thought Berry might be the artist for that purpose. So on May 21, 1955 Berry recorded an adaptation of "Ida Red"—"Maybellene"—which featured Johnnie Johnson on piano, Jerome Green (from Bo Diddley's band) on the maracas, Jasper Thomas on the drums and Willie Dixon on the bass. "Maybellene" sold over a million copies, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues chart and No. 5 on the September 10, 1955 Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.^[8][22]

At the end of June 1956, his song "Roll Over Beethoven" reached No. 29 on the Billboard Top 100 chart, and Berry toured as one of the "Top Acts of '56". He and Carl Perkins became friends. Perkins said that "I knew when I first heard Chuck that he'd been affected by country music. I respected his writing; his records were very, very great." As they toured, Perkins discovered that Berry not only liked country music, but knew about as many songs as he did. Jimmie Rodgers was one of his favorites. "Chuck knew every Blue Yodel and most of Bill Monroe's songs as well," Perkins remembered. "He told me about how he was raised very poor, very tough. He had a hard life. He was a good guy. I really liked him."^[23]

Berry in The Casino Deauville, France, July 13, 1987

In late 1957, Berry took part in Alan Freed's "Biggest Show of Stars for 1957" United States tour with the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and others.^[24] He also guest starred on ABC's The Guy Mitchell Show, having sung his hit song "Rock 'n' Roll Music". The hits continued from 1957 to 1959, with Berry scoring over a dozen chart singles during this period, including the top 10 US hits "School Days", "Rock and Roll Music", "Sweet Little Sixteen", and "Johnny B. Goode". He appeared in two early rock and roll movies. The first was Rock Rock Rock, released in 1956. He is shown singing "You Can't Catch Me." He had a speaking role as himself in the 1959 film Go, Johnny, Go! along with Alan Freed, and was also shown performing his songs "Johnny B. Goode," "Memphis, Tennessee," and "Little Queenie." His performance of "Sweet Little Sixteen" at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 is captured in the motion picture Jazz on a Summer's Day.^[25]

By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star with several hit records and film appearances to his name, as well as a lucrative touring career. He had established a racially integrated St. Louis-based nightclub, called Berry's Club Bandstand, and was investing in real estate.^[26] But in December 1959, Berry was arrested under the Mann Act after an allegation that he had sex with a 14-year-old Apache waitress whom he had transported over state lines to work as a hat check girl at his club.^[27] After an initial two-week trial in March 1960, Berry was convicted, fined $5,000, and sentenced to five years in prison.^[28] Berry's appeal that the judge's comments and attitude were racist and prejudiced the jury against him was upheld,^[3][29] and a second trial was heard in May and June 1961,^[30] which resulted in Berry being given a three-year prison sentence.^[12] After another appeal failed, Berry served one and one half years in prison from February 1962 to October 1963.^[12] Berry had continued recording and performing during the trials, though his output had slowed down as his popularity declined; his final single released before being imprisoned was "Come On".^[31]

"Nadine" and move to Mercury (1963–69)[link]

When Berry was released from prison in 1963, he was able to return to recording and performing due to the British invasion acts of the 1960s—most notably The Beatles and The Rolling Stones—having kept up an interest in his music by releasing cover versions of his songs;^[32][33] along with other bands reworking his songs, such as the Beach Boys basing their 1963 hit "Surfin' USA" on Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen".^[34] In 1964–65 Berry released eight singles, including three, "No Particular Place to Go" (a reworking of "School Day"),^[35] "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine,"^[36] which achieved commercial success, reaching the top 20 of the Billboard 100. Between 1966 and 1969 Berry released five albums on the Mercury label, including his first live album Live at Fillmore Auditorium in which he was backed by the Steve Miller Band.^[37][38]

While this was not a successful period for studio work,^[39] Berry was still a top concert draw. In May 1964, he did a successful tour of the UK,^[35] though when he returned in January 1965 his behavior was erratic and moody, and his touring style of using unrehearsed local backing bands and a strict non-negotiable contract was earning him a reputation as a difficult yet unexciting performer.^[40] He also played at large events in North America, such as the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City's Central Park in July 1969, and the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in October.^[41]

Back to Chess: "My Ding-a-Ling" to White House concert (1970–79)[link]

Berry returned to Chess from 1970 to 1973. There were no hit singles from the 1970 album Back Home, then in 1972 Chess released a live recording of "My Ding-a-Ling", a novelty song which Berry had recorded in a different version on his 1968 LP From St. Louie to Frisco as "My Tambourine".^[43] The track became Berry's only No. 1 single. A live recording of "Reelin' And Rockin'" was also issued as a follow-up single that same year and would prove to be Berry's final top-40 hit in both the US and the UK. Both singles were featured on the part-live/part-studio album The London Chuck Berry Sessions which was one of a series of London Sessions albums which included other Chess mainstay artists Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Berry's second tenure with Chess ended with the 1975 album Chuck Berry, after which he did not make a studio record until 1979's Rock It for Atco Records, his last studio album to date.^[44]

In the 1970s Berry toured on the basis of his earlier successes. He was on the road for many years, carrying only his Gibson guitar, confident that he could hire a band that already knew his music no matter where he went. Allmusic has said that in this period his "live performances became increasingly erratic, [...] working with terrible backup bands and turning in sloppy, out-of-tune performances" which "tarnished his reputation with younger fans and oldtimers" alike.^[45] Among the many bandleaders performing a backup role with Chuck Berry were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller when each was just starting his career. Springsteen related in the video Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll that Berry did not even give the band a set list and just expected the musicians to follow his lead after each guitar intro. Berry neither spoke to nor thanked the band after the show. Nevertheless, Springsteen backed Berry again when he appeared at the concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. At the request of Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry performed at the White House on June 1, 1979.^[38]

Berry's type of touring style, traveling the "oldies" circuit in the 1970s (where he was often paid in cash by local promoters) added ammunition to the Internal Revenue Service's accusations that Berry was a chronic income tax evader. Facing criminal sanction for the third time, Berry pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to four months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service—doing benefit concerts—in 1979.^[46]

Still on the road (1980–present)[link]

Berry performing live in 1997

Berry continued to play 70 to 100 one-nighters per year in the 1980s, still traveling solo and requiring a local band to back him at each stop. In 1986, Taylor Hackford made a documentary film, Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, of a celebration concert for Berry's sixtieth birthday, organised by Keith Richards, in which Berry reveals his bitterness at the fame and financial success that Richards achieved on the back of Berry's songs.^[47] Eric Clapton, Etta James, Julian Lennon, Robert Cray and Linda Ronstadt, among others, appeared with Berry on stage and film. During the concert, Berry played a Gibson ES-355, the luxury version of the ES-335 that he favored on his 1970s tours. Richards played a black Fender Telecaster Custom, Cray a Fender Stratocaster and Clapton a Gibson ES 350T, the same guitar Berry used on his early recordings.^[48]

In the late 1980s, Berry bought a restaurant in Wentzville, Missouri, called The Southern Air,^[49] and in 1990 he was sued by several women who claimed that he had installed a video camera in the ladies' bathroom. Berry claimed that he had the camera installed to catch red-handed a worker who was suspected of stealing from the restaurant. Though his guilt was never proven in court, Berry opted for a class action settlement with 59 women. Berry's biographer, Bruce Pegg, estimated that it cost Berry over $1.2 million plus legal fees.^[50] It was during this time that he began using Wayne T. Schoeneberg as his legal counsel. Reportedly, a police raid on his house did find videotapes of women using the restroom, and one of the women was a minor. Also found in the raid were 62 grams of marijuana. Felony drug and child-abuse charges were filed. In order to avoid the child-abuse charges, Berry agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor possession of marijuana. He was given a six-month suspended jail sentence, two years' unsupervised probation, and ordered to donate $5,000 to a local hospital.^[51]

In November 2000, Berry again faced legal charges when he was sued by his former pianist Johnnie Johnson, who claimed that he co-wrote over 50 songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Roll Over Beethoven", that credit Berry alone. The case was dismissed when the judge ruled that too much time had passed since the songs were written.^[52]

Currently, Berry usually performs one Wednesday each month at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar located in the Delmar Loop neighborhood in St. Louis. In 2008, Berry toured Europe, with stops in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Poland, and Spain. In mid-2008, he played at Virgin Festival in Baltimore, MD.^[53] He presently lives in Ladue, Missouri, approximately 10 miles west of St. Louis.^[54] During a New Year's Day 2011 concert in Chicago, Berry, suffering from exhaustion, passed out and had to be helped off stage.^[55]

Legacy[link]

Berry was honored alongside Leonard Cohen as the recipients of the first annual Pen Awards for songwriting excellence at the JFK Presidential Library, Boston, Mass. on February 26, 2012

A pioneer of rock music, Berry was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Chuck Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics successfully aimed to appeal to the early teenage market by using graphic and humorous descriptions of teen dances, fast cars, high-school life, and consumer culture,^[2] and utilizing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.^[1] His records are a rich storehouse of the essential lyrical, showmanship and musical components of rock and roll; and, in addition to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, a large number of significant popular-music performers have recorded Berry's songs.^[2] Though not technically accomplished, his guitar style is distinctive – he incorporated electronic effects to mimic the sound of bottleneck blues guitarists, and drew on the influence of guitar players such as Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker^[2] to produce a clear and exciting sound that many later guitar musicians would acknowledge as a major influence in their own style.^[51] In the film Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll Eric Clapton states 'If you wanna play rock and roll – or any upbeat number – and you wanted to take a guitar ride you would end up playing like Chuck...because there is very little other choice. There's not a lot of other ways to play rock and roll other than the way Chuck plays it; he's really laid the law down..." In 1992 Keith Richards told Best of Guitar Player "Chuck was my man. He was the one who made me say 'I want to play guitar, Jesus Christ!'...Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do." Berry's showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players,^[57] particularly his one-legged hop routine,^[58] and the "duck walk",^[59] which he first used as a child when he walked "stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical" under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when "performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk."^[60][61]

The rock critic Robert Christgau considers him "the greatest of the rock and rollers,"^[62] while John Lennon said that "if you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'."^[63] Ted Nugent said "If you don't know every Chuck Berry lick, you can't play rock guitar."^[64] Among the honors he has received, have been the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984,^[65] the Kennedy Center Honors in 2000,^[66] and being named seventh on Time magazine's 2009 list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time.^[67] On May 14, 2002, Chuck Berry was honored as one of the first BMI Icons at the 50th annual BMI Pop Awards. He was presented the award along with BMI affiliates Bo Diddley and Little Richard.^[68]

Berry is included in several Rolling Stone "Greatest of All Time" lists. In September 2003, the magazine named him number 6 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".^[69] This was followed in November of the same year by his compilation album The Great Twenty-Eight being ranked 21st in the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[70] The following year, in March 2004, Berry was ranked fifth out of "The Immortals – The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time".^[6] In December 2004, six of his songs were included in the "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", namely "Johnny B. Goode" (# 7), "Maybellene" (# 18), "Roll Over Beethoven" (# 97), "Rock and Roll Music" (#128), "Sweet Little Sixteen" (# 272) and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (# 374).^[71] In June 2008, his song "Johnny B. Goode" ranked first place in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".^[72]

A statue 8 feet (2.4 m) tall of Berry, funded by donations, has been erected along the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The dedication ceremony attended by Berry was held on July 29, 2011.^[73]

Discography[link]

References[link]