It's Been 50 Years

(CNN) -- The facts are these: Just after 1 a.m. February 3, 1959, a three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza went down about five miles northwest of Mason City Municipal Airport, near Clear Lake, Iowa. The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28. The three young musicians were part of the "Winter Dance Party," a ramshackle tour that started in Wisconsin.

It has become famous, in Don McLean's "American Pie" formulation, as "the day the music died."

Ida had posted this video, which shows how it might have happened.

Hear Here:History-Newscast About Richie Valens, Buddy Holly & Big Bopper Plane Crash