Today in rock history 23rd February

1944 – Johnny Winter is born 1952 – Brad Whitford from Aerosmith is born. 1970 - Ringo Starr made a guest appearance on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. This was Starr’s first solo television appearance. 1978 - David Coverdale’s Whitesnake made their live debut at the Sky Bird Club in Nottingham, U.K. 1978 – The Eagles win Grammys for the “Hotel California” album and “New Kid in Town” single. 1979 – The first tour of the U.S. and Canada by Dire Straits opens at the Paradise Club in Boston. The group logs 51 sold-out shows in 38 days. 1980 – Queen had Billboard’s top tune with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, a song that Freddie Mercury later admitted, came to him while he was taking a bath. 1980 - Iron Maiden released their debut single “Running Free” on EMI Records in the U.K. where it peaked at number 34. 1983 – A collection of former studio musicians who call themselves Toto win Album Of The Year for “Toto IV” and Record Of The Year for “Rosanna”, at the 25th Grammy Awards. 1999 – At the 1999 Orville H. Gibson Awards, held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles, Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole, walks away with the best rock guitarist (female) honor, while bandmate Melissa auf der Maur picks up the plaudit for best bassist (female). 2000 – A cover of the Led Zeppelin classic “What Is And What Should Never Be” by Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes becomes available for free download exclusively from e-tailer Musicmaker.com. 2000 – At the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Carlos Santana performs a record-tying sweep at the Grammy’s, winning eight of the ten awards for which he is nominated. 2003 – Howie Epstein, 47, former bassist for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, dies at a hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A female companion who transports Epstein to the hospital claims that he had been doing heroin and taking prescription antibiotics for an illness. 2004 – Courtney Love fires her lawyer after he advises her to plead guilty to drugs possession charges. 2006 – The surviving members of Alice in Chains announce they are reforming for a series of concerts. Singer Layne Staley died in 2002. 2010 – The Rock Hall induction “gala” this year will take place in NYC on March 15th. This year’s inductees: Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong will induct The Stooges, Phish’s Trey Anastasio will induct Genesis, Wyclef Jean will induct Jimmy Cliff, Barry and Robin Gibb will induct ABBA and Jackson Browne will induct David Geffen. 2011 – Foo Fighters release “Rope,” the first single off their upcoming Wasting Light album.