54th Anniversary of The Day The Music Died

A plane crash 54 years ago today near Clear Lake, Iowa claimed the life of Buddy Holly along with Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson also known as The Big Bopper, and their pilot Roger Peterson. It's become known as the Day the Music Died.

The Buddy Holly Center is paying tribute to today's 54th anniversary with a day-long event called, The Day the Music Died. Today from 1pm to 5pm there will be no admission charge to get into The Buddy Holly Center located at 1801 Crickets Avenue.

Yes today is Super Bowl Sunday, but if you are looking for something else to do besides gather around the TV, why not head to The Buddy Holly Center.

The Daily Page out of Wisconsin has published a pretty interesting look into Holly's last days in Wisconsin that led up to the crash. According to the paper:

Though the crash site is in Iowa, Wisconsin plays a big part in this story. Buddy headlined a tour called the Winter Dance Party, which began in Milwaukee's Million Dollar Ballroom. It included stops in Appleton, Green Bay and Kenosha, along with small towns in Iowa and Minnesota.

The Wisconsin portion of the tour was brutal. The booking agent scheduled dates haphazardly, so the musicians had to travel hundreds of miles between one-night stands in a blizzard. On the way to Appleton, their bus died on Highway 51 in the middle of the night. They set fire to newspapers to stay warm in the minus-30 temperature.

A couple days later, as the replacement bus drove from Green Bay to Clear Lake, Buddy had a brilliant idea. He would charter a plane for a hassle-free trip to the next gig. That would give him a chance to do his laundry and get some rest.

You can view the rest of the story by clicking on the link above.