Births
1940: Fred Cash (Singer in The Impressions)
1948: Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) (Guitar for The Ramones)
1950: Robert "Kool" Bell (Vocals & Bass for Kool and the Gang)
1967: Teddy Riley (Producer & Singer for Blackstreet & Solo)
1980: Nick Cannon (Singer)
Events
1935: Bandleader Ozzie Nelson marries his lead vocalist, Harriet Hilliard.
1957: Jerry Lee Lewis recorded the song "Great Balls Of Fire."
1966: Cream drummer Ginger Baker collapses while on stage at a Sussex University gig in England, just after completing his epic 20-minute solo on "Toad."
1968: "Mama" Cass Elliot's initial solo engagement at Caesars' Palace is a disaster, with Elliot collapsing from exhaustion and her backup band ill-rehearsed. While hospitalized, she contracts tonsillitis, forcing the cancellation of the entire two-week engagement.
1971: "Imagine" was recorded by John Lennon.
1977: NBC airs The Paul Simon Special, which again reunites the singer with old friend Art Garfunkel.
1985: Little Richard passes out behind the wheel while driving his sports car in West Hollywood and runs into a telephone pole, seriously injuring him and forcing him to miss his induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After he recovers, he returns to spiritual music.
1987: The acclaimed Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll premieres in US theaters on the same day that Berry himself is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 1777 N. Vine.
1987: Promoting their space-themed Afterburner record, ZZ Top book passage on what is announced as the first passenger flight to the moon.
1988: The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards performs his first solo single, "Take It So Hard," on tonight's episode of Saturday Night Live.
1988: Pink Floyd's ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ finally left Billboard's Hot 200 Album Chart after a record breaking 741 weeks.
1989: After Rolling Stone Ron Wood suggested the Who were reforming for the money alone, Who guitarist Pete Townshend publicly answered: "Mick needs a lot more than I do. His last album was a flop," referring to the Stones' legendary miscue Dirty Work.
1992: The US Postal Service issues a booklet of commemorative rock and roll stamps featuring Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Bill Haley, Ritchie Valens, Clyde McPhatter, and Dinah Washington.
1996: Jimmy Chamberlin, formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins, pled guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with the heroin related death of Jonathan Melvin.
2002: Trace Adkins suffers a hairline sternum fracture and bruises when he's pinned under a tractor in a freak accident, while building a gravel road on his property in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He's immediately hospitalized, and cancels two Texas concerts.
2003: Coldplay singer Chris Martin asked Australian police to drop a charge of malicious damage after allegedly attacking a photographer's car. Martin was charged in July after breaking a windscreen with a rock after being photographed surfing. Martin did not appear in court at Byron Bay, New South Wales, when his lawyer, Megan Cusack, asked for the charge to be dropped.
2004: Rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to a year in federal prison on a gun-possession charge that stemmed from a traffic stop in 2002.
