Births
1947: David
Essex (Singer)
1950: Blair
Thornton (Guitar for Bachman-Turner Overdrive)
1961: Martin Gore (Vocals, Guitar & Keyboards
for Depeche Mode)
1964: Nick Menza (Drums for Megadeth)
1965: Rob Dickinson (Guitar & Vocals for
Catherine Wheel)
1965: Slash (Saul Hudson) (Guitar for Guns N'
Roses & Velvet Revolver)
1971: Alison Krauss (Bluegrass Singer /
Songwriter)
1971: Dalvin DeGrate (Mr Dalvin) (Vocals for
Jodeci)
1971: Chad Gracey (Drummer for Live)
1973: Fran Healy (Vocals & Guitar for Travis)
1980: Michelle Williams (Vocals for Destiny's
Child & Solo)
1980: Steve 'Stevo 32' Jocz (Drummer for Sum 41)
Events
1963: High
school student Neil Young and his band, the Squires, enter a Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada studio to record their first single, a surf instrumental
called "The Sultan."
1966: Frank Sinatra went to No.1 on the US album
chart with 'Strangers In The Night'. The LP would be the most successful of his
career, being certified Platinum for 1 million copies sold in the US. The title
track would earn him two Grammy awards for Record Of The Year and Best Male
Vocal Performance.
1968: The
Iveys, later known as Badfinger, sign with Apple Records after a persistent
campaign by longtime Beatles associate Mal Evans, who will produce their first
sessions.
1969: Los
Angeles declares "James Brown Day" in honor of the singer, but when
Mayor Sam Yorty is slightly late for the ceremonies, Brown leaves in a huff.
1977:
Backstage at the "Days On The Green" festival in Oakland, CA, Led
Zeppelin drummer John Bonham allegedly sees a member of promoter Bill Graham's
staff slap his son for taking down a dressing room sign. Bonham kicks the
employee, and band manager Peter Grant later breaks into the staff member's
trailer and beats him savagely. Bonham and Grant, among others, are arrested
for assault. Both would bargain down to misdemeanors, plead guilty, and
eventually pay a combined $2 million fine.
1979: Iran's
new leader, the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, bans rock and
roll as a corruptive influence on the people, a decision that eventually
inspires both the graphic novel Perseopolis and the Clash song
"Rock the Casbah."
1979: Keyboard player with The Grateful Dead
Keith Godchaux died after being involved in a car accident aged 32. He co-wrote
songs with Lowell George (of Little Feat) and was a member of The New Riders of
the Purple Sage.
1988: After forty-nine weeks on the US album
chart, 'Hysteria' by Def Leppard went to the No.1 position.
1989: Ringo
Starr begins his first tour since the Beatles stopped touring in 1966,
introducing his "All-Starr Band" of Seventies icons in Dallas, TX.
1994: The
International Astronomical Union names an asteroid in Mars' orbit ZappaFrank,
after the musician Frank Zappa, who'd passed away from cancer the year before.
1995: Two R.E.M. fans died at Dublin's Slane
Castle gig, one drowned in the River Boyne and the other was allegedly pushed
from a bridge.
1996: Rob Collins, keyboard player with The
Charlatans died in a car crash, aged 29. Collins had been recording keyboard
parts for the Charlatans 5th album ‘Tellin' Stories’ at a studio in Wales. An
investigation into the accident showed that Collins had consumed a sizable
amount of alcohol and was not wearing a seatbelt. He died from head injuries on
the roadside shortly after the accident having been thrown through the
windshield.
1998: It was announced that Iron Maiden would have
to cancel the remainder of its U.S. tour. The doctor of Blaze Bailey advised
him to not sing for one month.
2000: Farrah Franklin left Destiny's Child after
only five months with the group, the remaining trio of Beyonce, Kelly, and
Michelle said that Farrah was not kicked out, but had all agreed that Farrah
and Destiny's Child should part ways.
2001: Just
three years after the death of first wife Linda from cancer, Paul McCartney
gets engaged to former model and activist Heather Mills, who he first met at a
charity event in 1999. This news does not sit well with fans, especially when
the marriage lasts just four years. The couple produce one daughter, Beatrice
Milly McCartney.
2003: The US
National Registry of Historic Places declares Memphis, Tennessee's Sun Studios,
at 706 Union Avenue, a historic landmark.
2003: In a
bizarre ad placed in Variety, James Brown announces his separation from
his fourth wife, Tomi Rae, by featuring a picture of the couple and their
two-year-old, James Brown II, posing with Goofy at Disney World.
2004: A 21 year-old man was
arrested after being involved in a fight with Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty
in Kentish Town, London. Doherty ran off before police arrived after being
beaten up by three men.
2006: George Michael was accused
of engaging in anonymous public sex, after being photographed in London's
Hampstead Heath with a 58-year-old unemployed van driver. Despite stating that
he intended to sue both the News of the World tabloid who photographed the
incident and van driver Norman Kirtland for slander, Michael stated that he
openly cruised for anonymous sex and that this was not an issue in his
relationship with partner Kenny Goss.
2008: Kid Rock was sentenced to
a year on probation and fined $1,000 for his part in a fight in an Atlanta
waffle restaurant in 2007. The 37-year-old, also received 80 hours community
service and six hours of anger management counseling. He pleaded no contest and
charges were dropped. Kid Rock had been performing at a gig in Atlanta before
stopping off in his tour bus in the early hours of the morning. The fight took
place when an argument broke out with another customer at the restaurant.
2010: Surgical instruments
allegedly used to conduct Elvis Presley's autopsy were removed from an upcoming
auction amid doubts about their authenticity. Forceps, needle injectors, rubber
gloves and a toe tag were among the items that were expected to fetch about
$14,000 at Chicago, Illinois' Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The so-called
"memorabilia" was supposedly kept by a senior embalmer at the Memphis
Funeral Home where the singer's body was stored prior to his funeral, but the claims
were questioned after another employee revealed that the equipment was
sterilized and used again in other autopsies.
2011: Singer Amy Winehouse is found dead in her
London home at age 27.
2011: After performing at Reggae
Sumfest 2011 in Montego Bay, rapper Nicki Minaj was given a summons for
explicit lyrics and "sexually suggestive dance moves" and was fined
$1,000 after she pleaded guilty.
