January 13th in Elvis History

It's January 13th, and on this day in 1973… Elvis Presley made television history with *Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite*, performing live at the International Convention Center Arena in Honolulu. The concert was broadcast in real time to much of the Far East, including Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Vietnam, and later shown to European audiences via Eurovision. It was the first entertainment special ever broadcast live around the world via satellite, reaching over one billion people—an audience larger than the moon landing. The concert raised more than triple its announced \$25,000 goal for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. At the end of the show, Elvis famously threw both his belt and cape into the audience. Then, after the crowd cleared out, he returned to the stage to record five more songs—four of them from *Blue Hawaii*—for the U.S. broadcast version. The performance marked a new pinnacle in global entertainment, firmly establishing Elvis as not just the King of Rock and Roll, but the King of worldwide television spectacle.