Elvis Born: The King of Rock and Roll Arrives
Elvis Presley was born in a two-room shotgun shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, to a family so poor they couldn't always afford groceries. His twin brother Jesse was stillborn. He grew up listening to gospel in church and blues on Beale Street, and at 19 he walked into Sun Studio in Memphis and cut a record for his mother. Two years later he was on The Ed Sullivan Show, shot from the waist up because TV censors considered his hips obscene. He had 18 number-one singles. He never played outside North America. He died at 42, in his bathroom at Graceland, the same house he'd bought for his mother.
January 8, 1935
91 years ago
What Else Happened on January 8
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