On this day in 1928, Bo Diddley was born Ellas Bates on a small farm near McComb, Mississippi, in rural Pike County near the Louisiana border. Raised by his mother Ethel Wilson and later adopted by her cousin Gussie McDaniel, he was the only child of Ethel and Eugene Bates but had three half-brothers and a half-sister. Diddley would go on to become a pioneering force in rock and roll, known for his distinctive rhythm—the “Bo Diddley beat”—which influenced countless artists and helped shape the sound of modern music.
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