May 9

Births

1914: Hank Snow (Country Singer)

1937: Dave Prater (Singer in Sam and Dave)

1937: Sonny Curtis (Guitar in The Crickets)

1939: Nokie Edwards (Noel Floyd Edwards)(Bass for The Ventures)

1941: Danny Rapp (Singer for Danny and the Juniors)

1942: Tommy Roe (Singer)

1944: Don Dannemann (The Cyrkle)

1944: Richie Furay (Singer for Buffalo Springfield & Poco)

1945: Steve Katz (Guitar in Blood Sweat and Tears)

1946: Clint Holmes (Singer)

1949: Billy Joel (Singer & Piano Player)

1949: Bob Margolin (Blues Guitarist)

1950: Tom Petersson (Bass for Cheap Trick)

1953: John Edwards (Bass for Status Quo)

1962: Dave Gahan (Vocals for Depeche Mode)

1962: Paul Heaton (Vocals for Housemartins)

1971: Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan (Bass for Oasis)

1975: Ryan 'Nik' Vikedal, (Drums for Nickelback)

1979: Pierre Bouvier (Singer for Simple Plan)

Events

1944: Jimmie Davis became the Governor of Louisiana. He wrote the song "You Are My Sunshine.

1958: Still angry that his employers refuse to back him in his defense of recent charges of inciting a riot at a Boston show, DJ Alan Freed quits New York radio station WINS, claiming they refused to "stand by my policies and principles." The same day, Freed debuts his new package tour in Hershey, PA, starring Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Danny and the Juniors, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Larry Williams, and the Chantels.

1959: A sixteen-year-old singer named Wayne Newton, long ridiculed for his girlish voice, begins a two-week engagement at Vegas' Freemont Hotel, and proves so popular that he would headline at the location for over three years. He would go on to earn $20 million annually.

1962: Brian Epstein met with EMI producer George Martin. Martin signed the Beatles to record demos on June 4, 1962. It was their first recording contract.

1963: The Rolling Stones sign their first management contract with Andrew Loog Oldham's management company Impact, agreeing to license their UK output to Decca.

1964: Chuck Berry makes his UK stage debut at London's Astoria Theatre, with The Animals, The Nashville Teens, and The Swinging Blue Jeans opening for him.

1964: Louis Armstrong went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Hello Dolly' making him the oldest artist to hit No.1 one at the age of 62.

1965: Bob Dylan gives his first major performance in the UK, opening at London's Royal Albert Hall for an audience that includes the Beatles, the Stones, Donovan, and Marianne Faithfull.

1966: The Doors played at the Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, California auditioning for the position of the venues house band.

1973: Mick Jagger adds $150,000 to the Rolling Stones' contribution of $350,000 for victims of a recent Nicaraguan earthquake. (Jagger's then-wife Bianca was born in Nicaragua.)

1974: A folk supergroup performs at New York's Felt Forum when Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie perform "Blowin' In The Wind" and the standard "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue" for a Chilean benefit group. Unfortunately, a reportedly inebriated Dylan does not give his best performance.

1974: Bruce Springsteen gives the most important performance of his career, opening for Bonnie Raitt at her Boston Arena show. Playing his full two-hour set at Raitt's insistence, Bruce delivers a show so impressive that Rolling Stone's Jon Landau later wrote in Boston's The Real Paper, "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." Landau would later become Springsteen's manager and producer.

1978: Fee Waybill of The Tubes, broke a leg after falling from the stage at the Hammersmith Odeon, London whilst wielding a chainsaw during the bands set.

1979: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr attend Eric Clapton's marriage to George's ex-wife, Patti (whom a lovestruck Clapton wrote "Layla" for), with the "Threetles" performing some old rock and roll songs at Clapton's country manor. Mick Jagger, Elton John, Denny Laine, David Bowie, and Lonnie Donegan also attend. The couple would divorce in 1988.

1979: Jazz singer Eddie Jefferson was shot and killed at Baker's Keyboard Lounge on May 8, 1979, aged 60. He had left the club with fellow bandleader Cole around 1:35 a.m. and was shot while walking out of the building. A late-model Lincoln Continental was spotted speeding away from the scene. The driver was later picked up by Detroit police and identified as a disgruntled dancer with whom Jefferson once worked and had fired from a gig. The suspect was charged with murder, but was later acquitted in a Detroit trial.

1987: Starship started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a song co-written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.' At 48, it made lead singer Grace Slick the oldest female to reach No.1 on the UK chart, (later broken by Cher's 'Believe' in 1999).

1988: Prince's 10th album was released entitled "Lovesexy." Some stores refused to sell the album due to the nude portrait that was on the cover.

1990: Sinead O'Connor refused to perform on "Saturday Night Live" after Andrew Dice Clay was named as host.

1992: Bruce Springsteen finally makes his debut on US television, performing "Lucky Town" on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

1998: The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson performs his first-ever solo concert in St. Charles, IL.

1998: Blues harmonica player Lester Butler died at the age of 39 of a drug overdose.

1998: Jimmy Page appeared on US TV's 'Saturday Night Live' with rapper Sean 'Puffy' Combs and performed 'Come With Me' from the 'Godzilla' movie soundtrack. The song sampled the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin's song 'Kashmir'.

2000: A U.S. federal appeals court upheld a $5.4 million jury decision that Michael Bolton had plagiarized parts of the song "Love is a Wonderful Thing." The original song, of the same name, was released in 1966 by the Isley Brothers.

2005: Country singer Kenny Chesney married Bridget Jones and Chicago actress Renee Zellweger in the Caribbean.

2008: Foxy Brown avoided a further spell in prison after pleading guilty in a New York court to menacing her neighbour with a BlackBerry phone. The 28-year-old rapper admitted hitting Arlene Raymond during an argument over the volume of her car stereo last July. The incident landed the star in prison for violating the terms of her probation on a separate assault charge.