Births
1948: John
Evans (Keyboardist for Jethro Tull)
1948: Milan
Williams (Keyboardist for The Commodores)
1955: Reba McEntire (Country Singer)
1965: Steve Turner (Guitar for Mudhoney)
1966: Cheryl James (Salt from Salt-n-Pepa)
1969: James Atkin (Vocals for EMF)
1969: Rodney Atkins (Country Artist)
1976: Dave Keuning (Guitarist for The Killers)
1986: Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina
Germanotta) (Singer)
Events
1958: Blues musician and composer W.C. Handy died
of bronchial pneumonia at Sydenham Hospital in New York City.
1958: Alan
Freed's Big Beat Show tour kicks off the first of its 43 shows at the Brooklyn
Paramount Theater with Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Danny and the
Juniors, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Chantels, The Diamonds, Screaming
Jay Hawkins, and more.
1964: Madame
Tussaud's famous Wax Museum in London unveils its four new statues of the
Beatles -- the first of any rock star to be created and displayed there. The
figures will eventually become even more famous when the Beatles decide to use
them on the cover of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
1967: Van
Morrison’s song "Brown Eyed Girl" is recorded.
1969: Joe Cocker played his first American
concert.
1973: Pink
Floyd's LP Dark Side Of The Moon hits #1.
1974:
Delta-Blues artist Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup died of a heart attack in
the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia.
1974: Rock
group The Raspberries break up.
1975: Barbra
Streisand attends tonight's Elvis Presley show in Vegas and meets the King
backstage to discuss offering him the lead role in her latest film project: a
remake of the classic A Star Is Born. Despite the fact that Streisand's
boyfriend, stylist Jon Peters, is slated to produce and direct, Presley is said
to be ecstatic about the project.
1976: Genesis began their first North American
tour since Peter Gabriel left the band, appearing in Buffalo, New York, with
Phil Collins taking over as lead singer.
1982: After
driving erratically due to a toxic shock from drug abuse, David Crosby is
arrested in San Diego for driving under the influence and possession of Quaaludes,
cocaine, drug paraphernalia, and an unlicensed .45 pistol. When cops ask why
Crosby is carrying the gun, he says two words: "John Lennon."
1984: Mick
Fleetwood, whose band, Fleetwood Mac, had the biggest-selling album of all time
just seven years earlier, files for bankruptcy.
1985: At
10:15 am EST, 6,000 North American radio stations begin playing the all-star
benefit single, "We Are The World," written by Michael Jackson and
Lionel Richie and performed by a cast of 45 of music's biggest stars, including
Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Diana
Ross, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, and Daryl Hall.
Proceeds from the sale of the single and related items -- some $38 million --
go to benefit victims of the recent Ethiopian famine.
1987: After
hearing that Arizona Governor Evan Mecham would not honor the new national
holiday Martin Luther King Day, the racially integrated Doobie Brothers move
their upcoming show from Phoenix to Las Vegas.
1991: Eric
Clapton quietly lays his son Conor, 4, to rest in England. The child, who had
fallen from an apartment window a few days earlier, would later be the subject
of Clapton's song "Tears In Heaven."
1992: over a $100,000 worth of damage was caused
at The Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California, when Ozzy Osbourne invited the
first two rows of the audience on stage. Several others took up the offer and
the band was forced to exit the stage.
1995: Country singer Lyle Lovett and actress
Julia Roberts announced they were separating after 21 months of marriage.
1996: Twenty
years to the day after first appearing with them on stage as their new lead
singer, Genesis front man Phil Collins announces he is leaving the group.
1999: Freaky Tah (Lost Boyz) was killed by a
ski-masked gunman who came up behind him and fired a single gunshot into his
head. Freaky Tah was 27 years old.
2001: The artist formerly known as both Puffy and
Puff Daddy said in an interview on MTV he now wanted to be known as P. Diddy.
In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy."
2005: On Rev.
Jesse Jackson's internet radio show, Michael Jackson claims that his recent
child-molestation charges are a racist conspiracy.
2005: After playing a warm-up date the night
before at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, U2 kicked off their Vertigo tour at the
iPay One Center in San Diego, California. The 131 date world tour would see the
band playing in North America, Europe, South America and Japan. By the time it
finished, the Vertigo Tour had sold 4,619,021 tickets, grossing $389 million;
the second-highest figure ever for a world tour.
2006: Tina Brown the sister-in-law of Whitney
Houston sold pictures taken in her bathroom to the National Enquirer claiming
Whitney Houston had been taking crack cocaine. The pictures showed drug
paraphernalia including a crack-smoking pipe, rolling papers, cocaine-caked
spoons and cigarette ends strewn across the surface tops of the bathroom.
2011: Rapper Rick Ross was arrested after police
responded to a complaint about the smell of marijuana at a Hilton Hotel.
Upon checking, police confiscated 1 gram of what
investigators believed to be marijuana.
He was issued a misdemeanor summons and released after the arrest.
