Read more about National Tap Dance Day.

• 1688 ~ Christian August Jacobi, Composer

• 1726 ~ Giuseppi Paolucci, Composer

• 1765 ~ Pierre-Joseph Le Blan, Composer, died at the age of 53

• 1767 ~ Ferdinand Franzl, Composer

• 1767 ~ Friedrich Johann Eck, Composer

• 1821 ~ Diederich Krug, Composer

• 1826 ~ Christian Friedrich Ruppe, Composer, died at the age of 72

• 1847 ~ Alphonse Goovaerts, Composer

• 1878 ~ Bill “Bojangles” (Luther) Robinson, Vaudeville dancer, tap-dancing coach for Sammy Davis, Jr. and Shirley Temple
More information about Robinson

• 1878 ~ Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera “HMS Pinafore” premiered in London

• 1887 ~ Gas lamp at Paris Opera caught fire, 200 died

• 1889 ~ Hans Joachim Moser, German musicologist

• 1889 ~ Gilardo Gilardi, Composer

• 1889 ~ Sverre Jordan, Composer

• 1898 ~ Mischa Levitzki, Composer

• 1901 ~ Milenko Zivkovic, Composer

• 1902 ~ Helvi Lemmikke Leiviska, Composer

• 1904 ~ Kurt George Hugo Thomas, Composer

• 1912 ~ Eddie Maxwell, Singer

• 1914 ~ Paolo Giorza, Composer, died at the age of 81

• 1915 ~ Ginny Simms, Singer with Kay Kyser Band

• 1917 ~ Jimmy Hamilton, Saxophonist

• 1917 ~ Leon Felix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, Composer, died at the age of 72

• 1919 ~ Gino Negri, Composer

• 1921 ~ Hal David, Oscar-winning songwriter with Burt Bacharach

• 1924 ~ Theodore Morse, Composer, died at the age of 51

• 1925 ~ Aldo Clementi, Composer

• 1926 ~ Miles Davis III, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He combined be-bop, modal chord progressions and rock rhythms to create ‘cool jazz’. He was one of the major influences on the art from the late 1940s. Read quotes by and about Davis

• 1926 ~ Kitty Kallen, Singer

• 1928 ~ Frigyes Hidas, Composer

• 1929 ~ Beverly Sills, American soprano and opera administrator, chairperson of Lincoln Center; National Chair of March of Dimes’ Mothers’ March on Birth Defects

• 1934 ~ Gustav Theodore Holst, English Composer, died at the age of 59
More information about Holst

• 1936 ~ Tom T. Hall, Singer

• 1936 ~ Jan Levoslav Bella, Composer, died at the age of 92

• 1943 ~ Leslie Uggams, Singer

• 1943 ~ John ‘Poli’ Palmer, Musician, sax, flute, keyboard with Family

• 1946 ~ Patty Smith Hill, Songwriter (“Happy Birthday To You”) died at the age of 78

• 1947 ~ Jessi Colter (Mirian Johnson), Country singer

• 1947 ~ Mitch Margo, Singer with Cross Country and also The Tokens

• 1964 ~ Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov, Composer, died at the age of 92

• 1965 ~ Sonny Boy Williamson (Aleck Miller), Blues player, died at the age of 65

• 1971 ~ Mark Brunswick, Composer, died at the age of 69

• 1981 ~ Rosa Ponselle, US singer at the Metropolitan Opera, died at the age of 84

• 1984 ~ Piet Ketting, Dutch pianist, conductor and Composer, died at the age of 79

• 1986 ~ 30 million people worldwide joined in pop singer Bob Geldof’s “Race Against Time” to raise money for the starving in Africa.