by Tot Taylor
1918
August 29, (Mrs) Gladys Mills born, Beckton, East London
1919
May 16, Wladziu Valentino, ‘Liberace’, born in West Allis, Wisconsin, USA
1919
May 20, Nijinsky admitted to the Bellevue Sanatorium, Zurich
1919
December 30, David Valentine Willcocks born Newquay, Cornwall
1920
April 7, Ravi Shankar born, Varanasi, India
1920
November 15, first complete performance of The Planets, Queen’s Hall, London
1921
Einstein elected Member of the Royal Society
1921
Jones arrives at Eric Gill’s Ditchling artists’ community.
1921
July 18, John Glenn born in Cambridge, Ohio
1922
Collins attends Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
1923
March 4, Patrick Moore, astronomer and musician born in Pinner, Middlesex
1925
July 10, Baba takes his vow of silence
1925
September 2, Trevor Herbert Stanford, ‘Russ Conway’, born in Bristol
1927
October 7, Ronald David Laing born in Govanhill, Glasgow
1927
Poulenc composes his harpsichord concerto Concert Champetre
1928
January 12, Vladimir Horowitz makes his debut at Carnegie Hall
1928
May 12, Burt Bacharach born Kansas City, Missouri, US
1929
April 5, Robert George Meek, ‘Joe Meek’, born in Newent, Gloucestershire
1930
The Atlas Celeste published in Cambridge, England by the International Astronomical Association
1931
November 11, Edward Elgar opens EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, St John’s Wood
1931
Meredith Starr (Herbert Close) sets up the retreat centre at East Challacombe, Coombe Martin, North Devon
1933
Comic actor Will (W.T.) Hay discovers the white spot on Saturn
1933
November 3, John Barry born in York, England
1933
Hilton’s Lost Horizon published
1934
February 23, Elgar dies at Marl Bank, Worcester
1934
March 9, Yuri Gagarin born in Klushino, Russia
1934
May 25, Gustav Holst dies in London
1934
June 10, Delius dies in Grez-Sur-Loing, France
1934
July 15, Harrison Birtwistle born in Accrington, Lancashire
1934
Betjeman’s Cornwall Illustrated published
1934
Hilton’s Goodbye Mr Chips published
1937
March 6, Valentino Tereshkova born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Russia
1937
October 28, Graham Bond born in Romford, Essex
1937
July 11, Gershwin dies in Hollywood, California
1937
Hindemith publishes The Craft of Musical Composition
1938
June 15, Leonard Lewis ‘Leonard of Mayfair’ born Notting Hill Gate, London
1938
July 15, John Bates, fashion designer, born in Northumberland
1939
December 23, Fred Heath, ‘Johnny Kidd’, born in Willesden, London
1940
June 1, Rachmaninov begins work on his final composition, the Symphonic Dances
1940
July 7, Richard Starkey, ‘Ringo Starr’, born in Liverpool
1940
October 9, John Lennon born in Liverpool
1940
November 11, David Sutch born in Kilburn, London
1941
Hilton publishes Random Harvest
1942
January 4, John McLaughlin born Doncaster, South Yorkshire
1942
January 8, Stephen Hawking born in Oxford (300 years to the day after the death of Galileo)
1942
March 9, John Cale born in Garnant, West Wales
1942
June 18, James Paul McCartney born in Liverpool
1942
June 20, Brian Douglas Wilson born in Inglewood, California
1942
July 24, Heinz Burt born in Detmold, Germany
1943
February 25, George Harrison born in Liverpool
1943
March 28, Rachmaninov dies in Beverly Hills, California
1943
July 15, Jocelyn Bell born in Belfast, Northern Ireland
1944
January 28, John Taverner born in Wembley Park, London
1945
June 7, premiere of Peter Grimes, Sadlers Wells, London.
1945
December, Bernard Lovell begins work on cosmic rays and ionised meteor trails at Jodrell Bank in the University Botanical Gardens, Macclesfield
1946
October 29, Peter Greenbaum born in Bethnal Green, London
1945
July 14, John Pond born in Keynsham, Bristol
1946
Bennett sets up his community at Kingston-upon-Thames 1947
1947
July 12, John Wilkinson, ‘Wilko Johnson’ born in Canvey Island, Essex
1947
Nijinsky moves to Surrey, England with his wife Romola
1948
May 5, Iona Sandstrand born Herning, Denmark
1948
June 18, June Jana Feather born in Trumpington, Cambridge
1948
June 22, Todd Rundgren born in Upper Darby, Philadelphia
1948
July 15, John Nightly born in Grantchester, Cambridge
1949
John Collins named as Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral
1950
April 8, Nijinsky dies in London
1953
Cambridge scientist John R. Smythies publishes ‘The Mescaline Phenomena’ in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
1953
February 25, Vladimir Horowitz performs in public for the last time
1954
Karlheinz Stockhausen becomes the first composer to have a work – Electronic Studies #2 – published in score with pitch specified in Hertz and volume in decibels
1954
December 20, James Hilton dies Long Beach, California
1955
April 18, Einstein dies in Princeton, New Jersey
1956
Bennett publishes the first volume of The Dramatic Universe
1956
Bennett begins work on the Djameechoonatra, a nine-sided auditory hall based on the enneagram symbol
1957
The Sky At Night is first broadcast
1957
International Geophysical Year (IGY)
1957
Bernard Lovell and Charles Husband develop and build the Mark I radar telescope
1957
September 20, Sibelius dies, Jarvenpaa, Finland
1957
September 26, West Side Story opens on Broadway
1957
Sputnik 1, the world’s first artificial satellite launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Khazakstan, Russia
1957
November 3, Sputnik 2 launched; Soviet ‘Muttnik’ Laika becomes the first dog in orbit
1957
November 4, Laika dies in space
1959
R. D. Laing publishes The Divided Self
1959
Koestler publishes The Sleepwalkers
1959
John Taverner becomes organist at St John’s Kensington
1960
August 12, John R. Pierce’s Echo 1 satellite launched
1960
May 22, a wave up to 35 feet high kills 1,000 people in Chile, causing damage in Hawaii, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan.
1961
February 13, West Side Story: Symphonic Dances international release; Nightly purchases the CBS recording in Miller’s, Cambridge
1961
May 5, the first suborbital space flight by Alan B. Shepherd Jnr in Freedom 7
1961
April 12, Gagarin becomes the first man in space
1961
J.G. Bennett visits the Shivapuri Baba in Nepal
1962
January 11, Beatles national-TV debut on Thank Your Lucky Stars with Brian Matthew
1962
February 20, 9.47am, John Glenn blasts off Cape Canaveral to become the first American in orbit
1962
October 12, Hawking arrives at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
1962
May 30, Britten’s War Requiem premieres at Coventry Cathedral
1962
July 10, launch of Telstar, the first orbiting communications satellite
1962
August 9, ‘Telstar’ by the Tornados released (Decca F11494)
1962
Britten’s War Requiem released (Decca SET252)
1963
January 30, Francis Poulenc dies in Paris
1963
April 13, John Bates invents the miniskirt
1963
June 16, Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space
1963
November 26, John and Jana attend Beatles concert ABC Regal, Cambridge
1963
Pierce receives National Medal of Science for contributions in theory, electron optics and travelling wave tubes
1964
John Cale awarded Leonard Bernstein scholarship to study in the US
1964
March 28, Radio Caroline begins broadcasting
1965
Bell begins PhD at Cambridge University
1965
May 9, Horowitz makes his comeback at Carnegie Hall, New York
1966
January 31, Luna 9 becomes first spacecraft to land on the moon
1966
Meher Baba issues his ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ card
1966
May 16, Pet Sounds (Capitol T 2458) released
1966
July 15, John Nightly’s eighteenth birthday
1966
August 5, Revolver (Parlophone PMC7009) released
1966
October 7, Johnny Kidd killed in car accident, Manchester
1966
October 15, Principal Fixed Stars released (Mosaic PO195738)
1967
January 13, Jimi Hendrix plays the Bag o’Nails
1967
February 3, Joe Meek murders his landlady and then commits suicide
1967
March 15, The Story of Simon Simopath by Nirvana is released
1967
July 15, Jocelyn Bell discovers CP1919, the world’s first pulsar (the ‘Cambridge Pulsar), at the radio astronomy observatory.
1967
July 15, the Dialectics of Liberation conference opens at the Roundhouse, London
1967
March 18, Torrey Canyon disaster, Lands End, Cornwall
1967
May 18, Sgt Pepper (Parlophone PMC 7027) released.
1967
May 22, Ravi Shankar opens his Kinnara Music School in Los Angeles
1967
August 14, British government announces all radio stations transmitting off the coast are silent
1967
August 24, Trancendental meditation lecture Hilton Hotel Ballroom, London, J.P&G, John, Iona and Monika attend
1967
September 30, BBC Radio One is launched
1967
October 1, Quiz Axe Queen released (Mosaic PO195746)
1967
October 17, Premiere of Hair on Broadway
1967
John Daly leaves for New Zealand
1967
December 5, the Apple Boutique opens at 94, Baker Street, London W1
1967
December 29, John Wheeler coins the term ‘Black Hole’ (collapsed stars) at a talk at GISS, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
1968
February 14, John & Iona marry at Marylebone Registry Office, London
1968
March 27, Yuri Gagarin dies Kirzhach, Russia
1968
Cornelius Cardew’s experimental music class, Morley College, the beginning of the Scratch Orchestra
1968
July 4, Round the World yachtsman Alec Rose returns to Portsmouth following his 28,500 mile adventure
1968
June 8, Birtwistle’s Punch & Judy premiere at Aldeburgh
1968
September 13, John Nightly, Scene & Heard interview with Miranda Ward
1968
October 17, The Pretty Things S.F. Sorrow released
1969
January 31, Meher Baba dies Meherebad ashram, Ahmednager, India
1969
First performance of Jesus Christ Superstar
1969
March 2, John & Yoko perform at Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge
1969
May 23, The Who release their rock-opera Tommy, dedicated to Meher Baba
1969
July 15, John Nightly’s twenty-first birthday
1969
July 16, Apollo 11 takes Neil Armstrong to the moon
1969
September 24, Deep Purple and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold perform Jon Lord’s ‘Concerto for Group and Orchestra’ at the Royal Albert Hall, London
1969
October 17, John and Donna attend the Nice’s Five Bridges Suite live, Fairfield Halls, Croydon
1969
November 22, the White Album released (Apple PMC7067)
1970
February 14, Ape Box Metal (Mosaic PO281928) released
1970
February 23, Leonard Bernstein records the Verdi Requim at the Royal Albert Hall in Quad
1970
March 21, The Who release The Seeker b/w Here for More (Track 605036)
1970
September 1, John Nightly begins composing MBR, source: The John Nightly Diaries edited Michael Ede (Harmon Books) 2002
1970
September 7, John Nightly completes composistion of MBR and returns to Cambridge for one week.
1970
September 25, Apple Records issues John Taverner’s The Whale
1970
October 16, Jesus Christ Superstar album released in the UK (Decca DSXA 7206)
1971
April 6, Stravinsky dies in New York
1971
April 28, Hawkwind play St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall
1971
May 4, Heiress Myra Knoll is killed instantly when car driven by John Nightly overturns near Taunton, Somerset
1971
August 1, Concert for Bangladesh
1971
September 5, John attends free gig at Grantchester Meadows with Raphaella
1971
September 8, Leonard Bernstein’s MASS premieres at the Kennedy Center, Washington
1971
October 12, the album of Jesus Christ Superstar (Columbia C31042)) released
1972
Stephen Hawking elected fellow of Gonville & Caius, Cambridge
1972
January 2, six weeks of rehearsals of MBR begin at Hornsey Secondary School, North London, before moving onto The Rainbow, Finsbury Park
1972
February 14, Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren (Bearsville 2BX2066) released
1972
May 5, Mink Bungalow Requiem performed in front of an audience of 400,000 people at the Ongaku Center, formerly Pleasance Memorial Park, Kyoto, Japan. The largest musical gathering in history.
1972
May 19, Mink Bungalow Requiem US premiere at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California
1972<
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May 28, Outdoor Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, Symphonia da Requiem for Group, Orchestra and Choir. The final performance.
1972
May 6, the Dorothy Ballroom closes
1972
September 1, John Betjeman appointed Poet Laureate
1972
September 27, John Nightly books into the Sumha Centre, Huntingdon, Cambs
1972
December 7, Sixth and final manned Lunar landing
1973
March 7, John Nightly attends premiere of Lost Horizon, National Theatre, Westwood, Los Angeles