In 1974 the remaining members of Jefferson Airplane came together to create a new version of the band, Jefferson Starship.
After side projects and solo albums, Jerry Kantner & Grace Slick put together the new band with players of their backup bands on their solo albums. By the late 70's the band would add former Airplane singer Marty Ballin, who would write their biggest hit of the Jefferson Starship run, "Miracles." He would sing lead for the band into the 80's before leaving to go solo, and that would open the door for Mickey Thomas, who would provide the group with another hit in "Jane".
By the mid 80's the only memebers of the Original Airplane and reformed Starship were Slick and Kantner, and not wanting to conform to the pop rock sound the band was headed into, Kantner left the band. Now completely an 80's pop rock group their would drop the Jefferson and strictly go by Starship. This run of the band would achieve massive success with the radio hits like "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," after which Slick herself would leave the band leaving Thomas as the sole lead singer who would score a hit with "Sara".
They first hit the road on this day and become one of the longest running groups in rock music.