On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Festival kicked off at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, New York. Approximately 400,000 fans trekked to the three-day event to see acts like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Grateful Dead, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane, among 25 others perform. Billed as “Three Days of Peace & Music,” Woodstock offered the counterculture generation a respite, amid the Vietnam war and unrest at home, and would become a defining moment of the era, as well as an iconic milestone in pop culture history. The festival would be captured in a subsequent documentary (1970’s Woodstock) as well as a best-selling soundtrack to the film.

Meanwhile, on the birthday list....

Jimmy Webb was born this day in 1946.

Tom Johnston (Doobie Brothers) born this day in 1948,

and Tommy Aldrige (Whitesnake) is 74.