It was a Tuesday in 1977 when the world heard the tragic news about Elvis Presley.
And it was the same day - exactly 41 years after the nation lost its "King of Rock and Roll" - that it is mourning its "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin. Franklin, 76, died Thursday in her home in Detroit following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
In 1977, Presley was discovered unconscious at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, and was rushed to nearby Baptit Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The news hit the airwaves. Newspapers and magazines scrambled to get the story on the next day's front page. And tabloids ran blunt headlines announcing "Elvis is dead." Variety reported at the time that "Elvis Presley, often credited as the single performer to introduce white audiences to the black boogie and blues rhythms of his native south, died yesterday at age 42, possibly of a heart attack."
"Everybody remembers where they were when they heard Elvis had died," Scott Williams, president and chief operating officer of the Newseum, told The Washington Post. He is the former vice president of marketing and public relations for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
The same will no doubt be true for Franklin.
"No matter when she died it would have been a loss," Williams said, but he noted it's interesting that a day after people held a candlelight vigil Wednesday to remember Presley, they mourned Franklin.