Births
1929: LaVern
Baker (R&B Singer)
1945: Vince
Martell (Lead Guitar for Vanilla Fudge)
1945: Chris Dreja (Rhythm Guitar & Bass for
The Yardbirds)
1950: Jim
Peterik (Lead Vocals & Guitar for Survivor)
1953: Andy Partridge (Singer / Songwriter &
Guitarist for XTC)
1953: Marshall Crenshaw (Singer /
Songwriter)
Events
1938: Kate
Smith sings a twenty-year-old, unknown Irving Berlin tune called "God
Bless America" for the first time on her radio program.
1944: Frank
Sinatra, of the Harry James big band, signs with Columbia as a solo recording
artist.
1954: Bill Haley scored his first US Top ten
single with 'Shake Rattle And Roll'. He had dropped his cowboy image about a
year and a half earlier, while renaming The Saddlemen to Bill Haley and His
Comets.
1963: After a
gig in Birmingham, England, the Beatles find themselves attempting to escape a
throng of fanatically devoted fans for the first time, escaping through the
crowd by dressing up as policemen.
1965:
Journalist Al Aronowitz gets the garage band The Velvet Underground their first
gig -- at the Summit High School dance in Summit, NJ.
1967: Van
Morrison makes his only appearance on ABC-TV's American Bandstand,
lip-synching his big hit, "Brown Eyed Girl."
1968:
American record buyers are scandalized when John Lennon and Yoko Ono release
their new album Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins with a cover
depicting the two of them standing unashamedly in full-frontal nudity. Record
stores eventually carry the experimental album in a brown paper wrapper.
1969: Jim
Morrison of the Doors is arrested by the FBI for drunk and disorderly behavior
and interfering with the flight of an aircraft in Phoenix, AZ, after a flight
attendant on his trip from Los Angeles accuses him of attacking and sexually
harassing her. Morrison and his flight companion, American actor Tom Baker,
spend the night in local jail but are released the next day on $2,500 bail. The
charges are later dropped.
1970: Ringo
Starr and his first wife, Maureen, become the proud parents of their first
child, daughter Lee Parkin, at Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital in
Hammersmith, London.
1970: Bob
Dylan publishes his first novel, a poorly-received stream-of-consciousness work
called Tarantula.
1972: Berry
Oakley (Bass for Allman Brothers) was involved in a motorcycle accident in
Macon, Georgia, just three blocks from where Duane Allman had his fatal
motorcycle accident the year before. He
refused medical treatment and got a ride home.
Three hours later, he was rushed to the hospital, delirious and in pain,
and died of cerebral swelling caused by a fractured skull. He was 24 years old.
1975: Reba McEntire signs her first recording
contract, with Mercury Records.
1986: Pink
Floyd announce their intention to record a new album and tour under their band
name, a name which recently departed leader Roger Waters considers his alone.
1990: A 21 year-old AC/DC fan died after being
attacked outside the Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey where the band were
playing a gig that night.
1994:
Christie's auction house in New York City holds their first-ever auction of
rock memorabilia, including the Beach Boys' guitars, a stage outfit worn by
Jimi Hendrix, and John Lennon's famous Army fatigues.
1994: The
Monkees' Micky Dolenz guest stars, along with Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick and
Billy Vera, on tonight's "" episode of ABC-TV's Boy Meets World.
1999: Singer Brandy was admitted into a hospital in
Southern California due to dehydration from overwork.
2000: The
original Meters reunite for one and only one gig in San Francisco, their first
since 1977.
2003: A
London High Court orders Van Morrison to pay $67,000 in lost revenue to Gary
Marlow, owner of the Crown Hotel in Wiltshire, England, after canceling a
planned gig there.
2004:
M'hammed Soumayah, bodyguard for Liza Minelli, sues the singer for $100 million
for allegedly forcing him to have sex with her or be fired.
2004: Coldplay fan Sarah Sainsbury wrote to the
band asking for their autographs so she could sell them to raise funds at her
school charity. Coldplay sent her a triple platinum disc worth over $7,500.
