Births
1925: Hank Thompson (Country Musician)
1934: Freddie King (Blues Guitarist & Singer)
1942: Al Jardine (Guitar & Vocals for The Beach Boys)
1945: George Biondo (Bass for Steppenwolf)
1947: Eric Bell (Guitar for Thin Lizzy)
1948: Don Brewer (Drums & Vocals for Grand Funk Railroad)
1955: Steve Jones (Guitarist for The Sex Pistols)
1979: Tomislav 'Tomo' Milichevich Sarajevo (Lead Guitarist for 30 Seconds to Mars)
1980: Jay 'Cone' McCaslin (Bass for Sum 41)
Events
1955: Bill Haley & his Comets turned down a $2,000 offer for a 15-date tour of Australia because of their fear of flying.
1963: Three years after its inception, Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records is bought by Warner Brothers.
1965: Yet another riot during a Rolling Stones concert as 30 fans rush the stage during their performance in Dublin, Ireland, knocking lead singer Mick Jagger to the floor and forcing the band to flee.
1966: After 14 years on TV (and ten years on radio before that), the last episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which made Ricky Nelson a household name, airs on ABC.
1966: Donovan went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sunshine Superman', a No.2 hit in the UK. The track featured then Yardbird and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The song was written for Donovan's future wife Linda Lawrence.
1967: A young Swedish singer named Anni-Frid Lyngstad wins a talent-show contest on the TV program Hyland's Corner with her group the Anni-Frid Four. She would later become famous as one of the two female lead singers of ABBA.
1968: Sly and the Family Stone's career gets another boost when the band wins the final round on NBC-TV's summer talent competition Showcase '68.
1968: Having quit the band in disgust a few weeks earlier due to endless band infighting during the "White Album" sessions, Ringo returns to Abbey Road Studios to find his drum kit covered in flowers.
1969: The 30th Elvis Presley movie, the '20s period piece The Trouble With Girls (And How To Get Into It), is released.
1970: Alan Wilson (Lead Singer for Canned Heat) died in Topanga Canyon, California of a drug overdose at age 27. Although Wilson had reportedly attempted suicide twice before and his death is sometimes reported as a suicide, this is not clearly established as he left no note.
1970: The Dave Clark Band call it quits after ten years.
1970: An affair with Mick Jagger is cited in Marianne Faithfull's divorce proceedings from art dealer John Dunbar.
1970: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown suffers a setback when Brown is arrested after a performance at the Palermo Pop Festival in Italy for completely disrobing on stage. He spends four days in solitary confinement, during which he receives a petition signed by 200 locals advising him to leave the country immediately.
1970: The very first "bootleg" recording, a collection of Bob Dylan outtakes entitled Great White Wonder, reaches its peak sales figure of 350,000 copies.
1971: Paul McCartney decides to name his new band "Wings."
1977: The month after his death, Elvis Presley had 27 albums and 9 singles in the Top 100 charts in the UK. 'Moody Blue' was the No.1 album while 'Way Down' was No.1 on the singles chart, (putting him equal with the Beatles, each amassing 17 No.1 hits).
1983: UB40 had their first No.1 single with 'Red Red Wine'. Taken from their album Labour of Love the song was a cover of the 1968 Neil Diamond hit song. The re-released single was a US No.1 in 1988.
1991: Ike Turner is released from his four-year stint in the California Men's Colony state prison in San Luis Obispo after serving 18 months, (Ike had been arrested ten other times). In an interview with 'Variety' he claimed to have spent over $11 million on cocaine.
1994: R&B Singer Major Lance died from heart failure at age 55.
1994: Brian Setzer (formerly of the Stray Cats) married Christine Schmidt.
1999: The largest music bootleg bust in US history was made. It was estimated that this one operation alone was responsible for $100 million in lost revenues. Recording equipment valued at $250,000 was confiscated, as were almost 1 million CDs and tapes.
2002: The Ronettes sue ex-producer Phil Spector for $3 million in unpaid royalties from movie, TV, and commercial usage of their big early-Sixties hits.
2006: Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums were tampered with in record stores in Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy. Banksy had replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and gave them titles such as ‘Why am I Famous?’, ‘What Have I Done?’ and ‘What Am I For?’. He had also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.
2007: During a US tour with Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way married Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lyn Z after a gig in Colorado.
2008: R&B singer Ne-Yo was awarded $700,320 after he was dropped from a US tour with R. Kelly. The singer claimed he was fired as Kelly's opening act last November because fans and critics preferred him - an allegation his co-star denied.
2008: Heavy metal band Slipknot scored their first US number one album - but only after a recount put them ahead of rapper The Game's latest release. Slipknot topped the US chart with their fourth studio album All Hope Is Gone which, according to analysts Nielsen SoundScan, sold 239,516 copies - 1,134 more than the Games album.
2010: Mike Edwards a founding member of ELO was killed in a freak accident when a giant bale of hay tumbled down a hill and crashed into his van. The 62 year-old cellist died after the 1,323 lb. bale rolled down a steep field in Devon, southern England, smashed through a hedge and careered on to the road. Edwards played cello with ELO, the seven-piece band led by Jeff Lynne, from their first live gig in 1972 until he left in January 1975. He quit the band in 1975 to become a Buddhist, changing his name to Deva Pramada and making his living by teaching the cello.
