Eddie Cochran, the man behind “Summertime Blues” and “C’mon Everybody,” was killed on April 17, 1960 when the taxi carrying
him from a show in Bristol, England, crashed en route to the
airport.  

        
Camille Bohannon
      

Dolly Rebecca Parton is a singer, songwriter, actress, and
philanthropist, known primarily for her decades-long career
in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter
for others, Parton made her album debut in 1967 with Hello,
I’m Dolly. Dolly is 79 years young today.

On December 21, 1970, rock star Elvis Presley was greeted at
the White House by President Richard M. Nixon. Presley’s visit
was not just a social call: He wanted to meet Nixon in order to
offer his services in the government’s war on drugs.

On December 20, 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays
at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-
and-roll star Elvis Presley received his draft notice for the
United States Army.

On this day in 1964, in response to a reported shooting,
officers of the Los Angeles Police Department were
dispatched to the Hacienda Motel, where they found
singer Sam Cooke lying dead on the office floor, shot
three times in the chest by the motel’s manager, Bertha
Franklin.

The authorities ruled Cooke’s death a case of justifiable
homicide, based on the testimony of Ms. Franklin, who
claimed that Cooke had threatened her life after attempting
to rape a young woman with whom he had earlier checked
in.

Even as the lurid details of the case were becoming common
knowledge, some 200,000 fans turned out in the streets of
Los Angeles and Chicago to mourn the passing of Sam
Cooke.

In the years since his death, the circumstances surrounding
Cooke’s shooting have been called into question by his family
and others. Though the truth of what happened on this day in
1964 remains uncertain, Sam Cooke’s place in the history of
popular music is anything but.