Quite a lineup was assembled for the Newport, California Pop Festival at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on the weekend of August 3 & 4, 1968. The lineup included the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, the Byrds, Eric Burden and the Animals, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, the Chambers Brothers, Blue Cheer, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Quicksilver Messenger Service. It became the first festival to draw more than 100,000.

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on August 3 include...

 

1946 Byrds bassist John York born.

1961 Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker born (Leon Drucker)

1963 Collective Soul's Ed Roland born.

1963 Metallica's James Hetfield born.

1963 The Beatles final Cavern Club performance takes place.

1966 The Rolling Stones record Let's Spend the Night Together.

1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival releases Green River. 

1969 Alice Cooper releases Pretties For You. 

1971 Paul McCartney forms Wings.

1974 Jeff Baxter leaves Steely Dan to join Doobie Brothers.

1974 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band appear as the middle act at a Wolman Skating Rink Central Park concert headlined by Anne Murray and opened by Brewer and Shipley.

1979 Talking Heads release Fear of Music.

 

1987 Def Leppard releases Hysteria.

1991 Animal rights activists confront Ted Nugent in New Hampshire.

1997 Bob Dylan resumes performing for the first time since developing a heart problem.

2000 Pearl Jam opens a US tour in Virginia Beach. VA.

2002 Bob Dylan returns to the Newport Folk Festival for the first time in 37 years.

2006 Traffic's reunion tour is scrapped when Jim Capaldi develops a severe ulser problem.

2006 Love's Arthur Lee dies of Leukemia.

2009 Grateful Dead's Bill Kreutzmann plays drums with Phish during Red Rocks, Colorado concert.