Big Star was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the vocal harmonies of The Beatles, as well as the swaggering rhythms of The Rolling Stones and the jangling guitars of The Byrds. To the resulting power pop, Big Star added dark, existential themes, and produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Their first two albums, #1 Record and Radio City, suffered from ineffective marketing but garnered enthusiastic reviews; Rolling Stone called the band a "quintessential American power pop band" that was "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". In 1993, Chilton and Stephens re-formed Big Star with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. After tours in Europe and Japan, they released a new studio album, In Space, in 2005. Big Star was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1478:

In a conspiracy to replace the Medici family as rulers of the Florentine Republic, the Pazzi family attacked Lorenzo de' Medici and killed his brother Giuliano during High Mass at the Florence Duomo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazzi_family

1777:

American Revolutionary War: Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington rode forty miles through the night to warn militiamen under the control of her father that British troops were planning to invade Danbury, Connecticut. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Ludington

1946:

In Naperville, Illinois, US, two passenger trains collided, leaving 45 people dead and some 125 injured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naperville_train_disaster

1986:

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR, suffered a steam explosion, resulting in a fire, a nuclear meltdown, and the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people around Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

2002:

Expelled student Robert Steinhäuser murdered 16 people and wounded seven others before committing suicide at the Gutenberg- Gymnasium Erfurt in Erfurt, Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_massacre

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

culturicide: The systematic destruction of a culture. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culturicide

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

If God be God and man a creature made in image of the divine intelligence, his noblest function is the search for truth.   --Morris West https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Morris_West