Black Sabbath plays their first gig in England

Black Sabbath played their first gig at a small backstreet Blues club in Birmingham, England on July 13, 1968

Black Sabbath were an English rock band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne (lead vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass guitar), and Bill Ward (drums).

The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of twenty-two musicians have at one time been members of Black Sabbath. Originally formed as a heavy blues rock band named Earth, the band began incorporating occult- and horror-inspired lyrics with tuned-down guitars, changing their name to Black Sabbath and achieving multiple platinum records in the 1970s. Despite an association with occult and horror themes, Black Sabbath also composed songs dealing with social and political issues such as drugs and war.

Black Sabbath are cited, along with Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, as pioneers of heavy metal.

The band helped define the genre with releases such as quadruple-platinum Paranoid, released in 1970. They were ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band" of all time, and placed second in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, behind Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone has posited the band as 'the heavy-metal kings of the '70s'. They have sold over 15 million records in the United States alone and more than 100 million records worldwide

Retro History for July 13 The 50s 60s 70s 80s

Retro History For The Decade 1980

1988 9th Emmy Sports Award presentation
1988 Red Sox replace manager John McNamara with Joe Morgan
1988 Sting performs his 1st Rain Forest benefit concert
1987 Federal judge throws out Bette Midler's $10 million suit against Ford Motor Co, who used a sound alike voice for their TV commercials
1985 "Live Aid" concert raises over $70 million for African famine relief
1985 New York Yankees retire Roger Maris (9) and Elston Howard (32) uniforms
1984 Eddie Van Halen joins in, in a Jacksons concert
1984 Jeff Beck quits Rod Stewart's tour after 7 shows
1984 Sergei Bubka of U.S.S.R. pole vaults a record 5.89 m
1982 53rd All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 4-1 at Olympic Stadium, Montreal
1982 All star MVP: Dave Conception (Cincinnati Reds)
1982 Train crash at Aalter Belgium, 5 killed
1980 35th U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship won by Amy Alcott
1980 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R.

Retro History For The Decade 1970

1979 California's Nolan Ryan and Boston's Steve Renko each lose no-hitters in 9th
1979 George Harrison releases "Faster"
1978 Albania drops diplomatic relations with China PR
1978 Alexander Ginzburg sentenced by Soviet court to 8 years
1978 BBC bans Sex Pistols "No One is Innocent"
1978 Lee Iacocca fired as Ford Motor President by chairman Henry Ford II
1978 Russian dissident Ginsburg/Piatkus/Sjtsjaranki sentence to work camp
1978 Walter Poenisch completes swim of 207 km from Cuba to Florida
1977 New York City experiences 25 hour black-out
1976 47th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 7-1 at Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia
1976 All star MVP: George Foster (Cincinnati Reds)
1976 Last day of Test Cricket for Brian Close, aged 45
1975 8.5" (21.6 cm) of rainfall, Dover, Delaware (state record)
1975 Carol Mann wins LPGA Borden Golf Classic
1974 103rd British Golf Open: Gary Player shoots a 282 at Royal Lytham
1974 India's 1st one-day international (v England, Headingley)
1973 Bobby Murcer's 3 homers accounted for all RBIs, beating Kansas City 5-0
1973 Hector de Campora resigns as President of Argentina
1972 Los Angeles Rams (Irsay) and Baltimore Colts (Rosenbloom) swap owners
1971 42nd All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 6-4 at Tiger Stadium, Detroit
1971 All star MVP: Frank Robinson for the Baltimore Orioles
1970 Building begins of Amsterdam metro

Retro History For The Decade 1960

1969 Russia launches unmanned Luna 15 to Moon
1969 Sandra Haynie wins LPGA Ladies' Supertest Golf Open
1968 Black Sabbath played their first gig at a small backstreet Blues club in Birmingham, England.
1968 97th British Golf Open: Gary Player shoots 289 at Carnoustie Scotland
1968 French government-Couve de Murville forms
1967 Race riots break out in Newark, 27 die
1966 Richard Speck, murders 8 nurses in Chicago
1965 36th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 6-5 at Metropolitan Stadium, Minn
1965 All star MVP: Juan Marichal (SF Giant)
1963 Early Wynn, wins his 300th and last game at 43
1962 500 Indonesian parachutist land on New-Guinea
1962 91st British Golf Open: Arnold Palmer shoots a 276 at Royal Troon
1962 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1960 29th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 6-0 at Yankee Stadium, New York
1960 KDBQ-AM in San Francisco, California changes call letters to KYA
1960 U.S. Democratic convention nominates John F. Kennedy as presidential candidate

Retro History For The Decade 1950

1958 13th U.S. Women's Open Golf Championship won by Mickey Wright
1958 87th British Golf Open: Peter Thomson shoots a 278 at Royal Lytham
1958 Patty Berg wins LPGA American Women's Golf Open
1956 WCBI TV channel 4 in Columbus, MS (CBS) begins broadcasting
1954 21st All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 11-9 at Municipal Stadium, Cleveland
1954 Dean Stone gets credit for AL win, although he didn't retire a batter, he threw out Shoendienst trying to steal home, AL-11 NL-9
1950 Doctors remove 7 bone fragments from Ted Williams elbow
1950 Rene Pleven forms French government

Have a groovy vintage retro day!


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Vintage Retro Music & Retro Pop Culture is our passion and what we LOVE. We keep it going everyday for the love of producing it for you to enjoy. Thanks for viewing. Much Peace! Black Sabbath played their first gig in Birmingham, England on July 13, 1968