MARCH 9

1919: Guitarist Cleo Davis is born. He’s the first musician Bill Monroe hires, in August 1938, when he assembles his Blue Grass Boys

1925: Ralph Sloan is born in Wilson County, Tennessee. He forms a clog-dancing group, The Tennessee Travelers, who join the Grand Ole Opry in 1952. Following his death in 1980, Sloan’s brother takes over the act, re-naming it The Melvin Sloan Dancers

1936: Mickey Gilley is born in Natchez, Mississippi. A piano-playing cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis and reverend Jimmy Swaggart, he becomes a ballad singer during the Urban Cowboy era, in which his club, Gilley’s, plays a central role

1957: “The Badge Of Marshall Brennan” premieres in American movie theaters. The picture features Carl Smith and Marty Robbins

1966: Jan Howard records “Evil On Your Mind” in Nashville

1968: The Byrds record “Hickory Wind” and “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” key songs on their landmark country-rock album “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo,” at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville

1969: Buck Owens records “Johnny B. Goode” live at London’s Palladium

1970: Johnny Cash records “What Is Truth” at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville

1972: Waylon Jennings records “You Can Have Her” at Nashville’s RCA Studio B

1976: Johnny Cash has a star entered in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right next to Humphrey Bogart’s

1989: Kevin Hughes, chart director for the music trade publication Cash Box, is shot on Music Row in Nashville. The killer is unidentified for more than 13 years

1991: Alan Jackson tops the Billboard country singles chart for the first time in his career with “I’d Love You All Over Again”

1993: The Music City News awards Song of the Year honors to “I Still Believe In You,” written by Vince Gill and John Jarvis, at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House

1993: Atlantic releases Tracy Lawrence’s “Alibis” album

1993: Mercury releases Sammy Kershaw’s “Haunted Heart” album

2005: Chris LeDoux dies of bile duct cancer at Wyoming’s Casper Medical Center, after battling several liver diseases. A professional rodeo star, he recorded more than 30 albums and had a hit with Garth Brooks on “Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy”