March 4
Media consolidation reached unprecedented scale today in 1989 when Time Inc. and Warner Communications merged into Time Warner, creating the world's largest media company and fundamentally reshaping how music, film, and television would be produced and distributed… The Band suffered another tragic loss today in 1986 when keyboardist-vocalist Richard Manuel hanged himself at 41 in his Florida hotel room after a concert, the suicide ending the life of the troubled musician whose sweet tenor on "Whispering Pines" had been essential to the group's sound… Grunge's end drew horrifyingly near today in 1994 when Kurt Cobain fell into a 20-hour coma in Rome from an overdose of pills and champagne, internet rumors prematurely declaring him dead while Courtney Love claimed it was suicide—a month later, it would be… Baroque music found its most vivid composer when Antonio Vivaldi was born on this date in 1678, the Venetian priest whose violin concertos '...
