History Made Every Day™

Five months after the release of his phenomenally successful second album, Thriller, Michael Jackson performs the “moonwalk” on the Motown 25th Anniversary Special to his hit song “Billie Jean” on this day in 1983. (He had introduced the move in front of a live audience earlier that year.)

Already well-known since the age of 11 as the star and lead singer of the Jackson 5, a family musical act made up of Michael and his brothers that was signed by Motown in 1969, Jackson released his first solo album, Off the Wall, in 1979 when he was 21 years old. The follow-up, 1982’s Thriller, was packed with seven hit singles and went on to break all music-industry sales records as it made Jackson a worldwide superstar. Jackson’s May 1983 performance on the Motown 25th Anniversary Special boosted enthusiasm for the release and spawned the “moonwalk,” a dance move--in which he appeared to be slowly moving forward as he actually moved backward--that is now synonymous with Jackson and his unprecedented critical and commercial success. (The move was actually a takeoff on the “backslide,” which had been performed on Soul Train a couple of years earlier.) Later that year, he released a hotly anticipated 14-minute music video for the song “Thriller” on the year-old MTV music network, and was well on his way to revolutionizing not only pop music, but television as well. In 1987, Jackson’s third solo album, Bad, stayed at the top of the charts for eight weeks; by then, it was obvious why Michael Jackson had been crowned the “King of Pop.” Together, Bad and 1991’s Dangerous produced another 14 hit singles.

In later years, Jackson’s clear musical talent and extraordinary success were overshadowed by his peculiar behavior and strangely morphing personal appearance. The tabloid press has reported on his every move in great detail—including his series of dramatic cosmetic surgeries, short-lived marriages (including one to Lisa Marie Presley), odd parenting choices, unusual dress and, perhaps most spectacularly, the accusations made against him of child molestation. Though fans around the world continue to support him, he has increasingly been viewed more as “Wacko Jacko” than the “King of Pop” by those confused and disturbed by his seemingly inappropriate relationships with children and his bizarre “man-child” demeanor. Despite the controversy that seems to constantly surround him, he remains the most successful pop artist of all time and the move he made famous on this day in 1983 —the moonwalk —continues to be attempted on dance floors wherever music is played.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles, California, just weeks before a planned concert tour billed as his "comeback." He was 50 years old.