Thriller Joins Top US History Trove

Michael Jackson's Thriller has been added to the prestigious National Recording Registry's archive of the most important recordings in American history, Variety reports. The monster 1982 hit joins 24 other "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" new additions to the collection, including a 1925 recording of the first-ever broadcast to cross the Atlantic.

Some other national treasures preserved for posterity:

• The 1977 recording of Earth sounds sent into space with Voyager
• A 1959 recording of North Carolina folk songs
• Harry Truman's speech to the 1948 Democratic National Convention
• Roy Orbison's 1964 hit "Pretty Woman"
• A 1945 broadcast of New York's Mayor LaGuardia reading comics to kids during a newspaper delivery strike

(More record stories.)