This Day in Music History: The Rolling Stones play their first gig, Johnny Winter plays his last

1954 – Elvis Presley signs a recording contract with Sun Records and quits his day job at The Crown Electric Company. Sam Phillips from Sun Records originally wanted to use the 19-year-old to make demos of songs meant for other artists, but soon realized that he could bridge the gap between white and black performances.

1962 – The Rolling Stones make their live debut at the Marquee Jazz Club in London with Dick Taylor on bass (later of The Pretty Things) and Mick Avory on drums (later of The Kinks). Billed as The Rollin’ Stones, they are paid £20 for the gig.

1969 – The supergroup Blind Faith begin their first (and only) U.S. tour with a sellout performance at Madison Square Garden.

1970 – Janis Joplin performs her first live gig with her new backing group, Full Tilt Boogie Band.

1988 – Michael Jackson arrives in the UK for his first-ever solo appearances. He performs a total of eight nights to 794,000 people.

2007 – Rod Stewart is awarded the CBE Order of the British Empire by Prince Charles in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

2014 – Johnny Winter plays the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria. It is his last ever performance.

Information for this post was gathered from This Day in Music, The Music History Calendar, On This Day, and Wikipedia.