SANDY KOZEL

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, at age 28, became the first
African American player in Major League Baseball’s modern
era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete
for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier
in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.

Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Jackie Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number,
42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner
Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New
York City’s Shea Stadium.

1972
          

On March 21, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio hosted an event now
recognized as history’s first major rock-and-roll show…
the Moondog Coronation Ball.

Breathless promotion on the local radio station. Tickets
selling out in a single day. Thousands of teenagers,
hours before show time, lining up outside the biggest
venue in town.

The “Moondog” in question was the legendary disk jockey
Alan Freed, the self-styled “father of rock and roll” who
was then the host of the enormously popular “Moondog
Show” on Cleveland AM radio station WJW.

        
        
        
        
        
        
       
The King of Rock and Roll teamed up with TV’s reigning variety
program, as Elvis Presley (21) appeared on “The Ed Sullivan
Show” for the first time on September 9, 1956.        

With 60 million viewers—or 82.6 percent of TV viewers at the time—tuning in, the appearance garnered the show’s best
ratings in two years and became the most-watched TV
broadcast of the 1950s.

Although “The Ed Sullivan Show” was filmed in New York,
Presley performed remotely from CBS’s Los Angeles
studio because he was filming his first movie, Love Me
Tender, in California. 

  
Ed and Elvis 
       

SANDY KOZEL

Singer Bono (Paul David Hewson) is 64 years old today.

The Irish rock band U2 on stage.

ROSS SIMPSON

Johnny served four years in the Air Force.

Cash enlisted in the Air Force on July 7, 1950,
shortly after the start of the Korean War. After
basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and
technical training at Brooks Air Force Base,
both in San Antonio, Texas, he was assigned
to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the U.S.
Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, West       
Germany.

The Man in Black.

Born to poor cotton farmers in Kingsland, Arkansas,
country singer – songwriter Johnny Cash rose to
fame during the mid-1950s in the burgeoning
rockabilly scene in Memphis, Tennessee.

Cash is one of the best-selling music artists of all
time, having sold more than 90 million records
worldwide. His genre-spanning music embraced
country, rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk, and
gospel sounds.

His crossover appeal earned him the rare honor of
being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and
Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame.