December 23

Births

1929: Chet Baker (Jazz Singer & Trumpeter)

1940: Jorma Kaukonen (Guitar & Vocals for Jefferson Airplane)

1943: Derek Smalls (Bass for Spinal Tap)

1945: Ron Bushy (Drummer for Iron Butterfly)

1949: Ariel Bender (Guitar for Mott The Hoople)

1956: Dave Murray (Guitar for Iron Maiden)

1964: Eddie Vedder (Vocals for Pearl Jam)

Events

1959: Chuck Berry is arrested in St. Louis after Janice Norine, a 14-year old Apache girl he'd driven in from Mexico is revealed to be a prostitute. (Berry claims she was hired merely to be a hat check girl at his club.) Under the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport a minor across state line for immoral purposes, Berry is sentenced to five years in prison. He would serve less than four.

1964: After making their first appearance on ABC-TV's Shindig! (where they perform "Little Saint Nick," "Dance, Dance, Dance," "Papa Oom Mow Mow," and "Monster Mash"), and in flight from Los Angeles to a concert in Houston, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson suffers a nervous breakdown, leading to his immediate retirement from touring. Glen Campbell, still a studio musician, is hired to take his place on stage, and is eventually replaced by permanent member Bruce Johnston.

1967: John Lennon makes the first contact with his estranged father, Alf, in years: after hearing that he's taken ill, John sends him a get well note and a car so that he can visit his famous son.

1968: At Apple's Christmas party, John Lennon and Yoko Ono hand out presents to the children of the staff, dressed as Santa and Mrs Claus.

1969: Elton John meets for the first time with what would become his classic team -- songwriter Bernie Taupin, arranger Paul Buckmaster, and producer Gus Dudgeon -- to begin work on his first solo album.

1969: Willie Nelson's home in Ridgetop, Tennessee, burns while he's in Nashville at a Christmas party. When Nelson sees the house in flames, he runs in to rescue his guitar, Trigger, and a bag of marijuana stashed inside the case.

1977: Cat Stevens announces that he has changed his name to Yusuf Islam and converted to the Islamic religion.

1985: Judas Priest fans Raymond Belknap and James Vance shot themselves after listening to the Judas Priest album ‘Stained Class.’ The two had drunk beer, smoked marijuana and then listened to hours of the album. Afterwards they took a shotgun to a nearby school playground where Belknap shot and killed himself. Vance then blew away his jaw, mouth and nose but lived for more than three years before dying of effects of the shooting.

1992: Eddie Hazel (Guitar for Funkadelic) died from internal bleeding and liver failure. "Maggot Brain" was played at his funeral.

1996: Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx married TV's 'Baywatch' star Donna Deruico.

1999: Cristin Keleher, an unemployed musician in Hawaii, breaks into George Harrison's Maui home and makes herself at home, ordering pizza, drinking root beer, doing laundry, and calling her mother before authorities arrive to arrest her. She is eventually charged with breaking and entering and theft. She would serve four months.

2005: Geezer Butler, the bass player with Black Sabbath offered $9,000 for any information leading to the safe return of Toga, the three-month-old penguin that had been stolen from a zoo on the Isle of Wight a few days earlier.