December 31

Births

1942: Andy Summers (Guitar for The Police)

1943: John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.) (Singer / Songwriter)

1943: Pete Quaife (Bass for The Kinks)

1947: Burton Cummings (Keyboards & Lead Vocals for The Guess Who & Solo)

1948: Donna Summer (LaDonna Adrian Gaines ) (R&B / Disco Songer)

1951: Tom Hamilton (Bass for Aerosmith)

1959: Paul Westerberg (Guitar & Lead Vocals for The Replacements & Solo)

1963: Scott Ian (Rhythm Guitar for Anthrax & Stormtroopers Of Death)

1970: Danny McNamara (Lead Vocals for Embrace)

1972: Joey McIntyre (Singer in New Kids On The Block & Solo)

1977: Psy (Park Jae-sang) (Gangnam Style)

Events

1912: A rambunctious 12-year-old named Louis Armstrong fires his stepfather's pistol during New Years Eve festivities and is sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he will learn to read and write music, as well as play cornet and bugle with the school band.

1947: Roy Rogers marries Dale Evans.

1955: Les Baxter's "Unchained Melody," the hit theme from the movie Unchained, is voted Billboard's top-selling single of the year, with no less than four hit versions. And the Righteous Brothers' hit version was still nearly a decade away!

1961: The Beach Boys, formerly known as the Pendletons, make their onstage debut under their new name at a Ritchie Valens Memorial Concert in Long Beach, CA. They are paid $300 for the gig.

1961: Janis Joplin makes her on-stage debut at the Halfway House in Beaumont, TX.

1962: John Phillips and Michelle Gilliam, later of the Mamas and Papas, are married.

1963: The Kinks make their on-stage debut at London's Lotus House Restaurant.

1967: Sonny and Cher are suddenly disinvited to appear at tomorrow's Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA, after publicly backing the "Sunset Strip Rioters," teenagers protesting the city's new curfew.

1971: Elvis Presley announces to his entourage that his wife Priscilla will be divorcing him, saying simply, "She says she doesn't love me anymore." In contrast to previous years, tonight's New Year's Eve celebration is held at Graceland rather than a local club.

1971: Blood Sweat & Tears essentially break up as lead singer David Clayton-Thomas performs his last live show with the group. (The band would briefly reunite four years later.)

1972: Dick Clark begins a new holiday tradition as his first New Year's Rockin' Eve concert is broadcast on ABC-TV. Dick himself will host the annual event for the next 32 years. Guests for the inaugural event include Three Dog Night and Al Green.

1973: Australian band AC/DC made their live debut when they appeared at Chequers Bar in Sydney.

1974: Pink Floyd begin recording their landmark LP Wish You Were Here after abandoning an earlier concept of an album recorded entirely with household objects.

1974: Ex-Faces guitarist Ron Wood flatly denies rumors that he will be joining the Rolling Stones to replace Mick Taylor, who had recently quit the band.

1974: Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are asked to join Fleetwood Mac.

1975: Casablanca Records' single release party for Donna Summer's debut single, "Love To Love You Baby" features a life-size cake in the shape of the singer, flown in all the way from Los Angeles to New York. (It's Summer's 23rd birthday.)

1982: Max's Kansas City club in New York, where Bruce Springsteen, the New York Dolls, and the Velvet Underground played some of their first concerts, shuts its doors for good.

1982: E Street Band guitarist "Miami Steve" and/or "Little Steven" Van Zandt marries Maureen Santora at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. Little Richard officiates; Bruce Springsteen is the best man; Percy Sledge sings "When A Man Loves A Woman" during the reception.

1984: Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, crashed his Corvette Stingray, on the A57 outside Sheffield. Allen lost his left arm in the accident.

1991: Ted Nugent donates 200 pounds of venison to a Detroit soup kitchen run by the Salvation Army, declaring in a note, "I kill it, you grill it."

2000: Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson married actress Kate Hudson the daughter of actress Goldie Hawn. The couple separated in 2006.

2003: Australian singer and actress Natalie Imbruglia married Silverchair singer Daniel Johns.

December 29

Births

1942: Rick Danko (Bass & Vocals for The Band)

1946: Marianne Faithfull (Singer / Songwriter)

1947: Cozy Powell (Drums for Emerson Lake and Palmer & Whitesnake)

1950: Robert Parissi (Guitar & Vocals for Wild Cherry)

1955: Neil Giraldo (Guitar for & Married to Pat Benatar)

1961: Jim Reid (Lead Vocals for The Jesus & Mary Chain)

1965: Bryan Holland (Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar for The Offspring)

1970: Glen Phillips (Lead Singer for Toad The Wet Sprocket)

Events

1956: While driving North on Avenue K in Lubbock, TX, Buddy Holly notices a woman screaming "Stop that thief!" and chases down a fleeing shoplifter, making the local paper for his good deed.

1957: Steve Lawrence marries his first and only wife, fellow performer Eydie Gorme, at the El Rancho Hotel in Las Vegas.

1963: At 12:50 pm, New York's WMCA becomes the first radio station in the US to play the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand," officially kicking off the American Beatlemania craze. Across town, WABC plays the song an hour later.

1964: The Liverpool Youth Employment Service announced that some school leavers were finding it difficult to get jobs because their 'Beatle' style haircuts and clothing were unacceptable to employers.

1966: The Jimi Hendrix Experience make their television debut on BBC's Top Of The Pops, performing their first single, "Hey Joe."

1967: Dave Mason, singer and guitarist for Traffic, leaves the group for a solo career, though he'll return twice before finally quitting for good.

1969: A major milestone for Motown Records today as five of the Top 7 singles on Billboard's chart are products of the label and its affiliates.

1975: Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner and Grace Slick are divorced.

2006: The wife of rock singer Marilyn Manson, Burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese filed for divorce after just a year of marriage. The couple married in December 2005 in a ceremony held at a castle in Ireland.

December 28

Births

1903: Earl "Fatha" Hines (Jazz Pianist)

1915: Pops Staples (R&B Singer in The Staple Singers)

1921: Johnny Otis (Pop Singer)

1922: Stan Lee (Comic Writer)

1946: Edgar Winter (Keyboards & Vocals for Edgar Winter Group)

1948: Ziggy Modeliste (Drummer for The Meters)

1950: Alex Chilton (Guitar & Vocals for The Box Tops, Big Star & Solo)

1953: Richard Clayderman (Pianist)

1958: Joe Diffie (Country Artist)

1960: Marty Roe (Singer in Diamond Rio)

1971: Anita Dels (Singer for 2 Unlimited)

1978: John Legend (John Stephens) (R&B Singer / Songwriter & Pianist)

Events

1963: The magazine The New Yorker publishes an interview with Beatles manager Brian Epstein in their "Talk Of The Town" column about the band's upcoming Ed Sullivan gig -- the first major press the group has received in the US.

1964: African trumpeter Hugh Masekela is a featured guest on CBS-TV's game show To Tell The Truth.

1965: Elvis Presley, surrounded by friends including Larry Geller, "drops" LSD for the first time at Graceland, joined by girlfriend Priscilla Beaulieu. After staring at each others' distorted faces, the tropical fish in his aquarium, and, the next day, at dew drops on the breathing grass, both decide that they'd be risking their sanity to try the drug again.

1968: The first major rock concert on the East Coast, the Miami Pop Festival, takes place, a three-day affair featuring Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, The Turtles, Joni Mitchell, Procol Harum, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, Iron Butterfly, The McCoys, Fleetwood Mac, The Box Tops, Three Dog Night, Pacific Gas and Electric, and The Grateful Dead.

1972: Mick Jagger visits Managua, Nicaragua with his wife Bianca, searching for her mother after a devastating recent earthquake that claimed thousands of lives. Fortunately, Bianca's mother is fine.

1975: Ted Nugent has a .44 Magnum gun pulled on him at a concert in Spokane, WA, until the man is wrestled to the ground by security.

1983: Dennis Wilson (Drummer for The Beach Boys) drowned at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, after drinking all day and diving in the afternoon to recover items he had thrown overboard at the marina from his yacht three years prior.

1992: Paul Simon is the proud parent of his second son, Adrian Edward, with mother (and singer) Edie Brickell.

1993: Canadian singer Shania Twain married record producer Mutt Lange. The couple had separated in 2008 after 14 years of marriage.

1993: Billy Ray Cyrus marries Leticia Finley at home in Williamson County, Tennessee. "One cannot stand at the crossroads forever," says Cyrus, who dresses for the ceremony in blue jeans and a cut-up sweatshirt.

1998: Atlanta Rhythm Section vocalist Ronnie Hammond is shot and slightly wounded in a scuffle with police in Macon, GA, after allegedly attempting to assault an officer with a hammer and, then, a broken guitar neck. officers had been responding to a suicide attempt call concerning the singer (the second in the same month).

2000: Waylon Jennings holds a three-day-long estate sale at his home in Dixon, IL, offering up, amongst other artifacts, a motorbike that once belonged to Buddy Holly.

2002: Cambodia deports Gary Glitter and extradites him back to the UK to face a conviction in London on child pornography charges.

2003: Pete Townshend of The Who reveals to a London newspaper that he seriously considered suicide after a 2002 arrest for child pornography charges. The guitarist had claimed he was visiting child porn websites as research for a book dealing with his own sexual abuse as a child.

2003: Michael Jackson gives an emotional interview to CBS-TV's 60 Minutes, his first since being arrested on child molestation charges, claiming, "Before I would hurt a child, I would slit my wrists."

2010: Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have a daughter, Faith Margaret Kidman Urban, born through a surrogate mother at Nashville's Centennial Medical Center.