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.
