80 Unforgettable Moments

October 28, 1939 – Bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe joins the Opry cast and performs "Muleskinner Blues." George D. Hay is so taken with Monroe’s performance, he declares that if Monroe ever wants to leave the Opry, he'll have to fire himself.

November 1940 – Comedienne Minnie Pearl joins the Opry cast. Though many of the signature elements of Minnie Pearl are present already, the gossip of Grinder’s Switch has not yet added the famous price tag to her flowered straw hat. That would come a few years later as an accident when a tag inadvertently left on a new bunch of silk flowers flopped out during a performance and drew laughter from the cast backstage. Minnie decided to leave the tag as a part of the costume and a testament to "human frailty."

January 16, 1943 – Ernest Tubb makes his Opry debut. He brings with him the guitar of his idol, Jimmie Rodgers, given to Tubb by Rodgers' widow, Carrie.

June 5, 1943 – The Opry moves to the Ryman Auditorium on Fifth Avenue in downtown Nashville. The building, a former tabernacle, features oak pew seating and nearly perfect acoustics, but no air conditioning.

December 30, 1944 – Western swing bandleader Bob Wills plays the Opry. Because drums have not been allowed at the Opry, Wills’ drummer must set up his kit behind a curtain. A woman seated in the portion of the balcony that passed over the wings of the stage becomes so excited during Wills' performance that she falls out of the balcony onto the stage.

April 14, 1945 – A performance of "Taps," played to mark the passing of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt two days before, becomes the first use of a trumpet during an Opry broadcast.

December 8, 1945 – Earl Scruggs makes his debut with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, completing the historic line-up that would serve as the prototype for the bluegrass sound— Monroe on mandolin, Scruggs on banjo, Lester Flatt on guitar, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts on bass.

January 1946 – Red Foley brings a young guitarist named Chet Atkins to the Opry for the first time.

April 26, 1947 – Roy Acuff , who had left the Opry the previous year in a salary dispute, returns as host of the Royal Crown Cola Show.

June 11, 1949 – Hank Williams makes his Opry debut. The audience calls him back six times to reprise his song, “Lovesick Blues.” Opry legend Little Jimmy Dickens says it’s the Opry performance by another artist he most vividly recalls to this day.