On July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organised to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans.
Continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia (where Joan Baez famously kicked it off by telling the crowd “this is your Woodstock, and it’s long overdue”) and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour “superconcert” was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.
In a triumph of technology and good will, the event raised more than $125 million in famine relief for Africa.
Live Aid was the brainchild of Boomtown Rats singer, Bob Geldof.
In 1984, Geldof traveled to Ethiopia after hearing news reports of a horrific famine that had killed hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians and threatened to kill millions more.
After returning to London, he called Britain’s and Ireland’s top pop artists together to record a single to benefit Ethiopian famine relief.
The result – “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” – was written by Geldof and Ultravox singer Midge Ure and performed by “Band Aid,” an ensemble that featured Culture Club, Duran Duran, Phil Collins, U2, Wham! and others. It was the best-selling single in Britain to that date and raised more than $10 million for charity.
To read more about this momentous day in the world’s charitable history, visit this link: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
