For one day — July 13, 1985 — an unprecedented charity telethon called Live Aid mesmerized an estimated 1.4 billion of the planet's 5 billion people, in one of the biggest, most ambitious concert events ever staged.

Simultaneous shows from two continents at one point attracted 95 percent of the world's television viewers — an even more incredible statistic when you consider that it happened before the Internet, cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, streaming video and Twitter.

The musical telethon ended up raising more than 200 million dollars for starving people in Ethiopia and around Africa and inspired future shows like Farm Aid and Live 8.

READ a 25th anniversary article from MTV...