It was on this day in 1971 that “some stupid with a flare gun burnt the place to the ground.” Frank Zappa and his band The Mothers of Invention were performing at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland when an audience member shot a flare gun into the ceiling. The fire ended up destroying the entire casino complex as well as the group’s equipment and gear. Members of the band Deep Purple were staying at a hotel across the lake and were intending to start making their new album the next day at the same casino with a mobile recording studio they were renting from the Rolling Stones. They saw the fire from the other side of the lake and used the experience as the inspiration for their song “Smoke on the Water.”
The earliest event that Wiki says occurred on this day is “306 – Martyrdom of Saint Barbara” and the most recent are two from 2006: “An adult giant squid is caught on video for the first time by Tsunemi Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 mi) south of Tokyo” & “Six black youths assault a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana, US; the subsequent court case becomes a cause célèbre”
A few other things that also took place on this day are:
1674 – A Jesuit mission is founded on the shores of Lake Michigan. It would grow into the city of Chicago.
1954 – The first Burger King franchise opens for business in Miami.
1956 – Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins hold an impromptu jam session in the recording studio at Sun Records.
Happy birthday to Marisa Tomei, Gary Rossington, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hillman, Wink Martindale, Dena Dietrich, and Max Baer Jr.