VIDEO: On June 1, 2008, an enormous fire at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in California destroyed a massive collection of irreplaceable recordings by some of the greatest musicians in American history.
Nobody was seriously injured in the fire, but The New York Times referred to the disaster as "The Day the Music Burned."
The Times estimated that between 120,000 and 175,000 master recordings were lost in the fire, which included songs by Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Judy Garland. Universal claimed the story exaggerated the number of recordings that were destroyed.
The fire also destroyed a number of archived film copies, a set from "Back to the Future" and a popular King Kong-theme attraction.