The world lost sitar master Ravi Shankar on this day, December 11, in 2012. In 1956, Shankar left his home of India and began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music, and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on Harrison helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in Western pop music in the latter half of the 1960s. Read more (Wikipedia)