It’s the Day the Music Died. On this day in 1959 a Beechcraft Bonanza struck a frozen Iowa field at 170 miles per hour and cartwheeled for 150 yards, killing all aboard, including Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson. The day would be immortalized in Don McLean’s song American Pie as The Day the Music Died, which included this fine lyric: “And all the good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing, this will be the day that I die.”
