2003
Gary Allan's "Songs About Rain" video debuts on CMT
2003
Kenny Chesney starts a seven-week stay at #1 in Billboard with "There Goes My Life"
2000
A new sign is erected in the Mountain State: "Glen Dale, West Virginia--Home Of Brad Paisley, Member Of The Grand Ole Opry"
2000
Eddy Arnold receives a National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in a ceremony at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall. Among the evening's other recipients: poet Maya Angelou, pop singer Barbra Streisand and dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov
1997
With help from songwriter Steve Wariner, Garth Brooks slogs to #1 on the Billboard chart with "Longneck Bottle"
1990
George Strait's three nominations make him the country front-runner as the American Music Awards finalists are announced. Double-nominees include Clint Black, Garth Brooks, The Judds and Reba McEntire
1986
Randy Travis joins the Grand Ole Opry, introduced by Ricky Skaggs. He performs "Diggin' Up Bones"
1983
Johnny Cash checks into the Betty Ford Center to prevent an addiction to pain-killers administered during a recent hospital stay. He stays at the center for six weeks and is assigned to kitchen duty for three of them. Elizabeth Taylor is also in treatment
1982
Record producer Don Law dies in La Marque, Texas. A long time Columbia executive, he directed such hits as "Big Bad John," by Jimmy Dean; "Saginaw, Michigan," by Lefty Frizzell; "Ring Of Fire," by Johnny Cash; and "For The Good Times," by Ray Price
1956
Fiddler Rob Hajacos born in Richmond, Virginia. He becomes one of Nashville's most in-demand players, working sessions by John Michael Montgomery, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Alan Jackson, Mark Chesnutt and Reba McEntire, among others