7-inch 45 rpm Record
December 3, 1948
The new format is announced by RCA in a front-page article in Billboard magazine. The first release of the 45s came the following March.
The records originally came in seven translucent colors, one for each type of music:
• dark blue = light classics
• light blue = international
• yellow = juvenile
• bright red = folk
• deep red = classical
• green = country
• black = popular
Smoke On The Water
December 4, 1971
The Montreux Casino, Switzerland, burns to the ground during a set by Frank Zappa. The group Deep Purple, who were recording there at the time, immortalized the event on their next album. “Some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground…”
End of Prohibition
December 5, 1933
Prohibition is repealed when Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment giving it the necessary 75% of states needed to enact it.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of Prohibition with the following statement, “I trust in the good sense of the American people, that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors, to the detriment of health, morals and social integrity.”
This was also the first time a U.S. Constitutional Amendment was repealed.