1954 Elvis Presley, in his first live concert appearance, appears on the show Hillbilly Hoedown, opening for Slim Whitman.  According to reports, Elvis was so nervous that he stood on the balls of his feet and shook his leg in time to the music.  After he came offstage, he wanted to know why the audience was yelling at him.  They were reacting to the leg shaking, and a signature move was born.

1955, Johnny Cash begins recording ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ at Sun Recording Studio in Memphis.  The song was inspired by a movie about the prison that Cash had seen while serving in the US Air Force in West Germany.

1966, The Troggs cover of ‘Wild Thing’ starts a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart.  Interestingly, the same song had been released by an American band, The Wild Ones, a year earlier but failed to make the charts.

2003 Sam Phillips, the founder of Sun Records and Sun Recording Studio, dies of respiratory failure in Memphis, Tennessee. Phillips discovered Elvis Presley, and worked with other legends of rock and roll, including Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, as well as Ike Turner and blues legend B.B. King.

 
Source: This Day in Music.com, Wikipedia, YouTube, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Elvis Presley Music