Retroactive nomenclature the name that the land later comes to be known as: Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians are two examples. "The Day the Music Died" refers to the plane crash that took the lives of rock-and-roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson in 1959, but was not used popularly until 1971 when singer-songwriter Don McLean coined it in "American Pie". Retroactive nomenclature Retroactive nomenclature is the telling of the earlier history of a person, place or thing while referring to said person, place or thing by a name that came into use at a later
The Big Bopper across the icy field before the mangled plane came to rest against a barbed-wire fence, while Peterson's body remained entangled in the main mass of plane wreckage. The bodies of Holly and Valens came to rest several feet away from the wreckage on open ground, while Richardson was thrown approximately 100 feet beyond the wreckage, across the fence line and into the next cornfield, wearing only a red-checked flannel shirt and light blue cotton pants. All three died instantly of massive head and chest injuries. Richardson was survived by his wife Adrienne Joy Wenner (1936-2004) and five year-old daughter Debra