Births
1685: Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer)
1902: Son House (Blues Singer & Guitarist)
1940: Solomon Burke (R&B Singer)
1945: Rosemary Stone (Singer & Keyboards for Sly and the Family Stone)
1949: Eddie Money (Singer)
1950: Roger Hodgson (Singer for Supertramp)
1961: Slim Jim Phantom (Drums for The Stray Cats)
1966: DJ Preimer (Christopher Edward Martin) (DJ for Gang Starr)
1967: Maxim (Keith Palmer) (MC for The Prodigy)
1968: Andrew Copeland (Singer & Guitarist for Sister Hazel)
1980: Deryck 'Bizzy D' Whibley (Guitar & vocals for Sum 41)
Events
1939: "God Bless America" was recorded by Kate Smith.
1952: At the Cleveland Arena, influential DJ Alan Freed holds what is today considered the first true "rock and roll concert," as his Moondog Coronation Ball features Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, and Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers. With ten thousand attendees (and twice that many outside, waiting to get in), the local police shut the concert down prematurely for fire code violations, causing a near-riot.
1956: After performing in Norfolk, VA (with Gene Vincent opening), and en route to New York to appear on The Perry Como Show, Carl Perkins is badly injured in a Dover, DE car crash that also kills his manager and his brother Jay. The crash derails Perkins career, almost for good, as he is forced to spend months in the hospital nursing a fractured neck, broken collarbone, and a severe concussion, while Elvis Presley has an ever bigger hit with Carl's hit "Blue Suede Shoes."
1961: The Beatles, still featuring Pete Best on drums, play their first evening gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club, opening for an act called The Bluegenes (later the Swinging Blue Jeans of "Hippy Hippy Shake" fame).
1963: Barbra Streisand marries her first husband, actor Elliott Gould, whom she'd met while both were performing in the Broadway hit ‘I Can Get It for You Wholesale’.
1964: Dean Martin immortalizes his handprints in the cement of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
1967: John Lennon takes his first major LSD trip and freaks out while recording backing vocals on the track "Getting Better." Producer George Martin, not realizing the effects of the drug, takes Lennon to the roof of Abbey Road Studios to get some fresh air. Paul and George, upon learning where John was, rush up to get him down. The group works on a piano track for "Lovely Rita" instead.
1970: Faces, with new lead singer Rod Stewart, released their first LP, "First Step."
1973: After screaming teenage David Cassidy fangirls cause a riot on the set of the BBC TV show Top Of The Pops, the program bans all future teen idols from performing.
1976: David Bowie and Iggy Pop are arrested in New York and charged with marijuana possession, charges which are later dropped.
1976: Singer Claudine Longet, formerly the wife of Andy Williams, shot her boyfriend, world skiing champion Spider Sabich Sabich had tried to throw her and her three children out of his house. Longet was arrested for manslaughter.
1984: John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, dedicates a section of New York City's Central Park as a place of meditation called Strawberry Fields. Every December 9, thousands of fans converge on the spot to remember her last husband, who was murdered by a deranged fan on that day in 1980.
1991: Leo Fender, the inventor of The Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars died from Parkinson's disease. He started mass producing solid body electric guitars in the late 40s and when he sold his guitar company in 1965, sales were in excess of $40 million a year.
1994: Bruce Springsteen wins an Oscar for penning the song "Streets Of Philadelphia" for the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia.
1996: Guitarist for The Stone Roses John Squire quit the band. He broke the news to the other three members over the phone.
1997: Snoop Doggy Dog was sentenced to three years probation and fined $1,000 for a firearms violation after a handgun was found in his car when he was stopped for a traffic violation.
2001: Eminem was ordered to pay $476,000 as part of his divorce agreement with his ex-wife Kim. Also, as part of the agreement, Eminem would keep the “US mansion” and they would share custody of their five-year-old daughter, Hailie Jade.
2001, Michael Jackson's interior decorator told The Times newspaper that the singer kept 17 life size dolls, adult and child sizes, all fully dressed in his bedroom for 'company.'
2003: Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry divorces his first wife, model Lucy Helmore, after 21 years, on grounds of adultery.
2004, Ozzy Osbourne was named the nation's favorite ambassador to welcome aliens to planet earth by a Yahoo poll.
2008: Five years of legal wrangling comes to a close after the Beach Boys' Mike Love and Brian Wilson sued former member Al Jardine in an attempt to stop him from using the name while touring with his own band. Jardine's lawyer, while not disclosing the terms of the agreement, said his client "feels very happy and feels that this is a friendly settlement that allows them to focus on the talent and future of this American iconic band," words that have Beach Boys fans hopeful for the possibility of a full-scale group reunion.
2011: Blues legend Pinetop Perkins dies of cardiac arrest at 97 years old.
2011: Disco singer Loleatta Holloway died at the age of 64.
