Famed musician-composer, W.C. Handy hears an unknown black man performing a hybrid of African and Anglo/American folk music at the train station in Tutwiler Mississippi. Using a knife as a slide on a beat up acoustic guitar to accompany his mournful vocal about a train, this anonymous pioneer was “playin’ and singin’ the blues”. Handy would go on to be known as the “father of the blues”.
Lee Deforest invents the triode vacuum tube. This tube
amplifies weak electrical signals making them strong enough to drive a
loudspeaker.
Leo Fender is born in Anaheim, California.
Lester Polfus (Les Paul) is born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.