Mighty Merle Makes His Debut This Day In Country Music

2011 - Tammy Wynette's classic "Stand By Your Man" and The Sons Of The Pioneers' "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" are added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry.

2009 - George Strait is hailed as the Academy of Country Music's Artist of the Decade during a taping for a CBS-TV special at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Strait closes the night with the rest of the cast backing him on "Troubadour".

2007 - Luke Bryan sings "All My Friends Say" in his Grand Ole Opry debut.

1999 - Columbia releases Montgomery Gentry's debut album, "Tattoos & Scars".

1998 - Tammy Wynette dies at home in Nashville from a blood clot in her lung. Noted for the classics "Stand By Your Man" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," the First Lady of Country Music is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame five months later.

1992 - Mercury releases Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart".

1991 - Garth Brooks hits #1 on the Billboard country chart with "Two Of A Kind, Workin' On A Full House".

1987 - Randy Travis claims four trophies--Top Male Vocalist; Album of the Year, for "Storms Of Life"; and Single Record and Song, for "On The Other Hand"--in the 22nd annual Academy Of Country Music awards, aired by NBC from Knott's Berry Farm in California.

1957 - Ferlin Husky reaches the top of the Billboard country chart with "Gone".

1956 - Capitol Records opens its new Hollywood headquarters, the world's first round office building, at the corner of Hollywood & Vine. Among the artists who record in the studio: Buck Owens, Glen Campbell, Dwight Yoakam and Merle Haggard.

1937 - Merle Haggard born in Bakersfield, California. After imprisonment in San Quentin, he becomes a legendary singer-songwriter with his blue-collar observations and rich vocal style sending him into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994.