It’s May 4th and here are some reasons why this day matters in rock history:

In 1959, the first-ever Grammy Awards took place in L-A. MortSahl hosted the event, which saw Henry Mancini’s The Music from Peter Gunn win Album of the Year.

In 2012, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch died from cancer at age 49.

In 1973, Led Zeppelin kicked off their North American tour, which at the time became the biggest and most profitable rock and roll tour in US history. During the trek they traveled in a Boeing 720 jet that boasted a bar, a shower, a 30-foot lounge and a white fur bedroom. The jaunt grossed over $4-million.

In 1970, the National Guard killed four students and wounded eleven more during an anti-Vietnam War protest at Ohio’s Kent State University. Soon after, Neil Young went into the studio with the rest of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and recorded his ode to the tragedy, “Ohio.”

In 1974, Grand Funk Railroad started a two-week run at number one on the charts with their cover of Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion.”

And in 1997, Courtney Love put an ad in the Seattle Times selling the house she had shared with Kurt Cobain. The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house had a list price of three-million dollars. The carriage house where Kurt died had been knocked down when the place was refurbished.

And that’s what happened today in rock history.

(H/T: This Day in Music)

Dan Holzman