Births
1949: Herman Rarebell (Drummer for The Scorpions)
1950: Rudy Sarzo (Bass for Quiet Riot, Ozzy, Whitesnake, Dio & Blue Oyster Cult)
1954: John Parr (Singer / Songwriter)
1960: Kim Wilde (Singer)
1961: Janice Lynn Kuehnemund (Guitar for Vixen)
1962: Kirk Hammett (Lead Guitar for Metallica)
1977: Fabolous (John David Jackson) (Rapper)
Events
1952: Four days after he divorces his first wife, Bill Haley marries his pregnant girlfriend.
1954: ABC Radio stations ban Rosemary Clooney's "Mambo Italiano" due to what it considers "offensive lyrics," more than likely the exaggerated Italian patois and words "goombah" and "gidrool."
1956: Fats Domino sings his hit "Blueberry Hill" on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show.
1958: Johnny Cash suffers an attack of acute appendicitis while preparing for a show in Ottumwa, IA, and is hospitalized.
1963: Beatles manager Brian Epstein asks the group's fans to please refrain from pelting the group with "jellybabies" (jellybeans) at their concerts. (The Beatles had made the mistake of remarking how much they liked them.) On the same day, the newspapers reveal that the head of the Church of England has requested that the group write a Christmas song.
1968: The Bee Gees cancel a concert in Germany after Barry and Robin contract tonsillitis.
1968: Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, Richie Furay, George Grantham, and Rusty Young, folk-rock vets of the Los Angeles scene, debut at the Troubadour under the name Pogo, in honor of Walt Kelly's famous comic strip character. When Kelly files suit later, however, the group is forced to change to the similar-sounding Poco. The members would later go on to even greater success as members of The Eagles, Loggins and Messina, and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.
1970: Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his wife (and cousin) Myra Brown in Memphis after 14 years of marriage.
1972: Bill Withers sings his recent hits "Lean On Me" and "Use Me" on the syndicated dance show Soul Train.
1972: Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose aged 29. Member of Neil Young's Crazy Horse and writer of 'I Don't Wanna Talk About It', covered by Rod Stewart, Rita Coolidge and Everything But The Girl.
1975: Bruce Springsteen performs his first UK concert, at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Unfortunately, it was a subpar show, due to his disgust at the hype surrounding his new celebrity: upon seeing official show posters in the lobby declaring "Finally the world is ready for Bruce Springsteen," he rips them down.
1976: Richard Hell and the Voidoids made their debut at CBGB's New York.
1979: Chuck Berry is released from California's Lompoc Prison farm after serving a four-month sentence for tax evasion.
1983: R.E.M. made their first appearance outside the US when they appeared on Channel 4 UK TV show 'The Tube'. The following night they made their live UK debut when the played at Dingwalls, London.
1987: U2 opened for itself by pretending to be a country-rock group called The Dalton Brothers during a concert in Los Angeles.
1990: Paul McCartney's birth certificate is auctioned off for $18,000.
1992: Black Sabbath were honoured with a star at the Rock Walk in Hollywood.
1993: Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder was arrested in New Orleans for disturbing the peace after a fight broke out in a bar.
1994: The Rolling Stones become the first rock act to stream a live concert on the Internet, broadcasting twenty minutes of a show from Dallas, TX.
1997: In Bristol, England, Gary Glitter is detained and questioned by police after a computer store repairing the glam star's computer found it loaded with child pornography.
1998: Mick Jagger and model/actress Jerry Hall separate eight years to the day after their marriage in Bali when Brazilian model Luciana Morad names Jagger as the father of her unborn child.
2002: Bill Wyman, former Rolling Stones bassist, sends a cease and desist letter to a writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution bearing the same name, which the writer was born under in 1961, on grounds that it violated the copyright of the bassist Wyman, who legally took the name at age 28 in 1964. Needless to say, no lawsuit is ever filed.
2003: The original handwritten John Lennon lyrics to the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" are auctioned at Christie's of New York for $300,000.
2003: More than five hundred Britney Spears fans camped overnight outside the Virgin Records Megastore in New York's Times Square waiting to get the star to sign copies of her new album 'In The Zone.'
2003: Acting on the sexual abuse allegations of a 12-year-old boy who had visited the home, approximately 70 members of California's Santa Barbara County sheriff's and district attorney's offices raid Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. The singer is in Vegas filming a video at the time.
