1914
Born on this day in Brooklyn, Queens County, Nova Scotia, was Hank Snow, (Clarence Eugene Snow), who scored more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980, including “I’m Moving On”, “I Don’t Hurt Anymore”, and “Hello Love”. He is a member of both the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and the Music Hall of Fame. Snow died on December 20, 1999.
1968
Merle Haggard was at #1 on the Country charts with “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde”. Written by Haggard and Bonnie Owens It was released as the first single and title track from the album The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde. The song was Haggard’s fourth 1# and spent two weeks at #1 and a total of 14 weeks on the country chart.
1974
Merle Haggard had the #1 country single with “Things Aren’t Funny Anymore”, Haggard’s seventeenth #1 on the country charts spent ten weeks on the country chart.
1989Keith Whitley, the country music singer who charted 19 singles on the Billboard country charts, including five consecutive #1’s was found dead fully clothed face down on his bed. The cause of death was determined to be acute ethanolism (alcohol poisoning). At the time of his death, he had just finished work on his fourth and final studio album, I Wonder Do You Think of Me. The album was released three months after his death, and produced two more #1 hits, with the title track and “It Ain’t Nothin’.”
2005
Kenny Chesney married actress Renee Zellweger in a ceremony on the island of St. John. They had met in January of this year at a tsunami relief benefit concert. On September 15 of that same year, after only four months of marriage, the couple announced their plans for an annulment.
