On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opened on
a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New
York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and
Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise
funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near
the town of Woodstock, New York.

The longtime artists’ colony was already a home base for Bob
Dylan and other musicians. Despite their relative inexperience,
the young promoters managed to sign a roster of top acts,
including the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Grateful Dead,
Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more. 

On July 29, 1967, The Doors’ song “Light My Fire,” from their
debut album, earned the top spot in the Billboard Hot 100,
becoming their first bona fide smash hit and propelling The
Doors from cult favorites of the rock cognoscenti into
international pop stars and avatars of the ’60s counterculture.

James Douglas Morrison
(December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971)

  
MIKE GRACIA

   
Ringo Starr (Sir Richard Starkey) the former
drummer with The Beatles is 84 today.

SANDY KOZEL

On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe defeated the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to became the first African-American male ever to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis.

Arthur Robert Ashe Jr.
(July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993)

On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson, one of the most
commercially successful entertainers in history, died
at the age of 50 at his home in Los Angeles, California,
after suffering from cardiac arrest caused by a fatal
combination of drugs given to him by his personal
doctor.