4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) is the second song on The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle[?] by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and often cited as the best song on the album. It is a powerful love ballad, dedicated to Sandy and describing the depressing atmosphere that threatens to suffocate the love between the singer and Sandy. Locals include the "stoned-out faces," "switchblade[?] lovers" and "the greasers[?]" who "tramp the streets or get busted for sleeping out on the boardwalk[?] till dawn." The singer is tired of "hangin' in them dustyarcades" and "chasin' the factory girls."
... January 7 - The distress signal[?] "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS."
February 7 - A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 ...