Fifty years ago today, February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The plane, which took off in stormy conditions, crashed after a very short flight, taking the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson. Buddy Holly was the Lubbock, TX native famous for hits like Peggy Sue, Not Fade Away, That'll Be The Day and many more. Valens recorded La Bamba. The Big Bopper's big hit was Chantilly Lace. It was, as Don McLean was to famously call it in his song American Pie, the Day The Music Died.

It wasn't, of course; rock n' roll has gone on to enjoy a lengthy, if bizarre, life. But at the dawn of the genre, this accident was a shock to an America settling into an Eisenhower-cultivated life of two children and one car per family - the suburban American Dream. Was the accident a sharp rebuke against rock n' roll from a higher power? Or simply a somber reminder of the unpredictable nature of life?

The fact that the main story in newspapers the next day was not this plane crash, but a larger one in New York, is an almost poignant fact. Rock n' roll, in its infancy, sacrificed three men with extraordinary talent. The news may not have been front page then, but its legend only grew over time. And while the event has spawned countless articles, movies and tributes, most affecting is to think of the men who lost their lives at so young an age, and the families and friends and, yes, "widowed brides" they left behind.

The music is still actively with us; Buddy Holly's songs are covered to this day. Valens's music enjoyed a revival in the late 80s, and his version of La Bamba has become canonical. Chantilly Lace is still played on the radio, and is often heard in films and TV shows. But one can't help but imagine what these artists might have gone on to do. Holly, especially, might have been as large an important a part of the Sixties as the Beatles, Beach Boys and Motown.

SEE OUR LIST OF 10 WORST ROCK STAR PLANE CRASHES