In 1974, KISS signed with Casablanca Records. Their heavy-metal thudding was panned by critics, but they still managed to become one of the decade’s biggest-selling acts.

In 1979, the Canadian government named Rush its official “Ambassadors of Music.”

In 1991, Steve Clark, guitarist for the hard-rock band Def Leppard, was found dead in his London home. He was 30. A coroner ruled Clark “was a very heavy drinker who seemingly had abused drugs and regrettably paid the price.”

In 1993, at a minute after midnight, the Elvis Presley commemorative stamp went on sale at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. People in the rest of the U.S. got to buy them at post offices starting at noon.