Holly, Valens, Richardson (the Big Bopper) along with Dion and the Belmonts were on a road tour called Winter Dance Party. The groups were touring in unheated buses in freezing temperatures when Buddy Holly decided to charter a small plane to their next stop. The small plane could hold four people including the pilot, the cost was $36 person. He chartered it for himself and his two band mates, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup.

During the tour J.P. Richardson, the Big Bopper, had developed the flu and asked Jennings if he could go instead of him. Jennings agreed.

Jennings was until his death haunted over the crash in part over an exchange of words between him and Buddy Holly. Holly had said to Jennings, “”Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” Jennings responded, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.”

Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane and asked Tommy Allsup if he could have his seat. With a coin flip, tossed by the DJ at ballroom where they played that night, Valens had the last seat.

Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts was approached, but declined. He couldn’t see paying the price of 36 dollars, a sum which he had seen his parent argue over this price for apartment rent.

They were working on songs for a possible 1 hour following their album The Beatles (White Album). One idea for the show was for them to perform 8 songs in front of a live audience.

Soon it was decided instead of doing a TV special they would do a feature film showing them making their new album, at the time called Get Back. This album as well as film would become their final release, Let It Be. Later in 1969 they would return to the studio to record the songs for the album Abbey Road.

Since Beatles albums were known to take months to record and the film crew desire to be finish before this time on Sunday January 26 it was decided to do a roof-top unannounced concert the following Thursday.

During the forty-two minute concert they played five songs. Many of them more than once. The songs were “Get Back”, “Don’t Let Me Down”, “I’ve Got a Feeling”, “One After 909″, and “Dig a Pony”. As a tune-up they also played parts of the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen” and a brief section of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, a song John Lennon was working on and released on Abbey Road.

The concert ended when police arrived to stop it. The last song played was “Get Back. This was the third time the band played the song, the only one that was played more than twice. While the police was trying to stop the concert Paul slightly changed the lyrics singing, “You’ve been playing on the roofs again, and you know your Momma doesn’t like it, she’s gonna have you arrested!”

When the shooter was arrested it was 16 year old Brenda Ann Spencer. The rifle she used during the shooting had been given to her as a Christmas gift from her father, only a few weeks before.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Her sentence was 25 years to life in prison and is currently at The California Institution for Women in Chino, California. She is up for parole in 2009.

When asked why she did the shooting one of her responses was, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

Bob Geldolf, who was the lead singer for the rock band Boomtown Rats, heard about the shooting and the statement of Spencer and wrote the song, “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

It was only a minor hit in the US but, it was a number 1 hit in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s many album rock stations played the song as the anthem for Mondays. Since some stations only played the chorus many people had no idea the true subject of the song was a school shooting.

The Hewlett-Packard HP-35 was first introduced on February 1, 1972 and was the first handheld electronic calculator sold by HP. It was also the first handheld ever to perform logarithmic and trigonometric functions with one keystroke.

Digital Watches are introduced.

Atari was founded in June 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney and they install the first prototype of the video game Pong at Andy Capps Bar in September of the same year.

Pepsi-Cola introduced the Twelve-pack.

Woody Guthrie may have died in 1967, but The Woody Guthrie Foundation was founded in 1972. The foundation serves as administrator and caretaker of the Woody Guthrie Archives.

One could say she was destined to become an entertainer. While working at the diner her parents owned and operated, she sang songs for those she waited on earning applause and tips.

After separating from her first husband, Louis Tuck, she found herself on the vaudeville stage. She performed songs wearing blackface and with a southern accent until one day when he suitcase arrived late she went on stage declaring to the audience, “You all can see I’m a white girl. Well, I’ll tell you something more: I’m not Southern. I’m a Jewish girl and I just learned this Southern accent doing a blackface act for two years. And now, Mr. Leader, please play my song.”

Still she enjoyed singing songs that had African-American roots. Many of these songs, including her signature song Some of These Days written by Shelton Brooks, she purchased exclusive rights to sing.

Tucker was proud of her Jewish heritage and one of Tucker’s best know songs is My Yiddish Momme written for her in 1925 by Jack Yellen. The song has both Yiddish and English verses. At first she sang this in concert only when she felt the audience understood Yiddish, but later she would include it in her act. When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany he ordered all copies of the song destroyed.

Tucker never retired from entertainer. She performed in the movies, on the radio and on Television as well as on the stage during her long career. She died at the age of 82 on February 9, 1966, in New York City, just a few weeks after her last performance.

Jerry Lieber, born on April 25, 1933, and was raised mostly in Baltimore, Maryland. He meet Mike Stoller in Los Angeles in 1950 and the pair was soon writing songs. Both loved Blues and R&B. Their first recorded composition was Jimmy Witherspoon’s “Real Ugly Woman.”

Their song “Hound Dog” was written in 1953 and recorded by Big Momma Thorton. But it was the rock beat of the Elvis Presley version that took off in 1956. Elvis recorded a number of their songs.

In the late 1950′s they worked as producers at Atlantic Records in a deal that allowed them to produce on other labels. This made them as close to independent Record Producers as was done during that time.

In the 60′s they produced or wrote a number of popular songs including ay and the Americans (“She Cried”), The Exciters (“Tell Him”), and The Clovers (“Love Potion #9)”

The 1995 Broadway musical revue Smokey Joe’s Cafe was based on their work. It was also nominated for seven Tony awards, and became the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history.