April 12

Births

1932: Tiny Tim (Singer?)

1940: Herbie Hancock (Jazz Pianist)

1944: John Kay (Guitar & Vocals for Steppenwolf)

1947: Alex Briley (G.I. in The Village People)

1947: David Letterman

1950: David Cassidy (Singer)

1953: Tony James (Bass for Generation X & Sigue Sigue Sputnik)

1954: Pat Travers (Guitarist)

1957: Vince Gill (Country Singer)

1958: Will Sergeant (Guitarist for Echo And The Bunnymen)

1961: D.D. Verni (Bass for Overkill)

1962: Art Alexakis (Guitar & Vocals for Everclear)

1964: Amy Ray (Guitar & vocals for The Indigo Girls)

1967: Sarah Cracknell (Singer for Saint Etienne)

1967: Mellow Man Ace (Rapper)

1970: Nicholas Lofton Hexum (Vocalist & guitarist for 311)

1978: Guy Berryman (Bass for Coldplay)

1987: Brendon Urie (Singer for Panic! at the Disco)

Events

1939: Woody Herman recorded "Woodchopper’s Ball".

1954, Bill Haley recorded 'Rock Around The Clock' at Pythian Temple studios in New York City. Considered by many to be the song that put rock and roll on the map around the world. The song was used over the opening titles for the film 'Blackboard Jungle', and went on to be a world-wide No.1 and the biggest selling pop single with sales over 25 million. Written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, 'Rock Around The Clock' was first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights.

1961: At tonight's Grammy ceremonies, Ray Charles takes home four awards, including a Best Male Vocal for "Georgia On My Mind."

1963: Bob Dylan performs a spectacular concert at Town Hall in New York, which is recorded for a never-released live album on Columbia.

1964: Chubby Checker marries Miss World 1962, Catharina Johanna Lodders of the Netherlands.

1966: Tom Jones enters a hospital to have his tonsils removed, though some who claim to have seen his tonsils since claim his real visit was for a nose job.

1966: In an eerie recreation of the duo's single from the year before, Jan Berry of Jan and Dean crashes his Corvette into a parked truck on Beverly Hills' Whittier Drive, near a stretch of road in Los Angeles known as "Dead Man's Curve." Berry will require four years of rehabilitation to be able to talk and a full decade in order to perform live again.

1967: Mick Jagger was punched in the face by an airport official during a fight at Le Bourget Airport in France. Jagger lost his temper after The Stones were being searched for drugs resulting in them missing their flight.

1968: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention perform at a New York dinner for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences dinner in New York. Zappa calls the event "a load of pompous hokum" and yells from the stage: "All year long you people have manufactured this crap, now for one night you're gonna have to listen to it!"

1973: Stevie Wonder becomes one of the first rock stars to appear on PBS-TV's Sesame Street.

1973: The movie musical That'll Be The Day, starring Ringo Starr and David Essex, premieres in London.

1975: David Bowie announced his second career retirement, saying, 'I've rocked my roll. It's a boring dead end, there will be no more rock 'n' roll records from me.'

1975: Josephine Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance at  the Bobino in Paris—Joséphine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died.

1979: Mickey Thomas, vocalist on the Elvin Bishop Band's 1975 hit "Fooled Around And Fell In Love," becomes the new lead vocalist for Jefferson Starship.

1985: USA for Africa's "We Are The World" album was released.

1986:  Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go’s married Morgan Mason.

1988: Sonny Bono succeeds in his bid to become mayor of his hometown, Palm Springs, CA.

1989:  Garth Brooks' self-titled debut album was released.

1990: The Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, located at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, announces that four newly discovered asteroids, 4147-4150, will be named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.

1990:  James Brown was released from a South Carolina jail on work furlough after serving 15 months of a six-year sentence for aggravated assault.

1992: The Eagles' Don Henley leads 6,000 fans through Walden Woods in Massachusetts as part of a benefit walk to save the literally significant woods popularized by Henry Thoreau's work.

1992: Actress Lisa Bonet (The Cosby Show) files for divorce from singer Lenny Kravitz.

1995: Two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, (then the governor of Texas), declared "Selena Day" in Texas. The Mexican American singer Selena was murdered aged 23 by the president of her fan club Yolanda Saldívar on 31st March 1995.

1997: While on tour in the UK, Fun Lovin' Criminals drummer Stephen Borovini received a police caution after he was arrested on suspicion of making obscene phone calls to women working in gyms in the Leeds area.

1997: Travis Tritt marries model Theresa Nelson at his home in Paulding County, Georgia, with Marty Stuart serving as best man.

1999: Country singer Boxcar Willie Died of leukemia.

1999: Shania Twain became the only female artist in music history to sell at least 10 million units with back to back releases.

2000: Metallica filed a suit against Napster, Yale University, The University of Southern California and Indiana University for copyright infringement.

2000: Bo Diddley filed suit against Nike for using his name and image without permission. Nike is accused of continuing to use his image after a contract expired in 1991.

2001: Gladys Knight marries her fourth husband, longtime friend William McDowell.

2002: Ozzy Osbourne received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2005: Mariah Carey released ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’, the album entered the US chart at number one, going six times platinum in less than a year, and subsequently became the most successful album of 2005.

2008: With her latest single, "4 Minutes," Madonna beats Elvis as the artist with the most all-time Top Ten Hits on the Billboard charts (37).

2008: Lou Reed marries his second wife, conceptual artist Laurie Anderson.

2010: In San Antonio, TX, Bret Michaels, of Poison, had an emergency appendectomy. He had gone to the hospital while preparing for a show the previous night.