10 AMERICAN BLUES THEATER September 7, 1936: Charles Hardin Holley—known as Buddy Holly—is born in Lubbock, Texas. September 1, 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland and World War II begins. July 27, 1940: Billboard magazine publishes its first music popularity chart. December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and the U.S. enters World War II by declaring war on Japan the next day. Three days later, the U.S. declares war against Germany and Italy. March 31, 1943: Oklahoma!—the first musical written by the team of composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II—opens on Broadway. April 12, 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt dies and Harry S. Truman becomes President. August 15, 1945: Japan surrenders following the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The surrender is formally signed on September 2, 1945, officially ending World War II. July 26, 1948: Truman desegregates the armed forces. February 1950: Senator Joseph McCarthy gains power and McCarthyism begins. July 16, 1951: The Catcher in the Rye is published by J. D. Salinger. 1952: A 16 year old Buddy Holly and friend Jack Neal participate in a talent contest on local television. November 4, 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president. 1953: Buddy Holly joins forces with his friend Bob Montgomery to form the duo “Buddy and Bob”. The duo performs on the Sunday Party show on KDAV and perform live gigs around Lubbock, Texas. May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education is decided. February 1955: Buddy Holly opens for Elvis Presley, and then does so again in April and June. July 9, 1955: Rock and roll music enters the mainstream, with "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets becoming the first rock record to top the Billboard pop charts. July 17, 1955: Disneyland opens at Anaheim, California. October 1955: Holly opens for Bill Haley & His Comets where he is seen by a Nashville scout. December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks incites the Montgomery bus boycott. January 26, 1956: Buddy Holly attends his first formal recording session and is signed to Decca Records the next month. April 1956: Decca releases Holly’s “Blue Days, Black Nights” as a single, with “Love Me” on the B-side. July 30, 1956: "In God We Trust" is adopted as national motto. September 9, 1956: Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. February 25, 1957: Dissatisfied with Decca, Buddy Holly and his band go to Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico and record “That’ll Be the Day”. However, because Holly is still under contract with Decca, they cannot release the record under Buddy’s name, so Jerry Allison proposes the name "Crickets". TIMELINE OF EVENTS DURING BUDDY HOLLY’S LIFETIME Bill Haley & His Comets Below is a look at significant international, cultural, and personal events that took place during Buddy Holly’s life (1936—1959).