Births
1938: Tommy
Chong (Cheech and Chong)
1941: Bob
Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) (Singer & Songwriter)
1944: Patti
LaBelle (R&B Singer)
1945:
Priscilla Presley
1947: Cynthia
"Plaster" Caster (Artist)
1949: John
Illsley (Bass for Dire Straits)
1955: Rosanne Cash (Country Singer)
1960: Guy Fletcher (Keyboards for Roxy Music
& Dire Straits)
1967: Heavy D (Dwight Arrington Myers ) (Rapper)
1967: Steve
McDonald (Bass for Redd Kross)
1969: Rich Robinson (Guitar for The Black Crowes)
1970: Tommy Page (Guitarist & Singer)
1976: Alessandro Cortini (Keyboards for Nine Inch
Nails)
1988: Billy Gilman (Country Singer)
Events
1963: Blues
guitarist Elmore James died after his third heart attack while in Chicago at
age 45.
1964: On "The Ed Sullivan Show," a taped
Beatles performance was played. The Beatles performed "You Can't Do
That" from the set of "A Hard Day's Night."
1965: John
Lennon's second book, A Spaniard In The Works, is published.
1968: Mick
Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were arrested for drug possession.
1969: The
Guess Who make their debut on American television, singing "These
Eyes" and "Laughing" on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.
1970: Peter
Green plays his last show with the band he founded, Fleetwood Mac, at the Bath
Festival in Somerset, England.
1971: In
honor of Bob Dylan's 30th birthday, Peanuts runs a strip in which Linus
mentions the milestone to Charlie Brown, who replies "That's the most
depressing thing I've ever heard." Dylan himself marks the occasion at
Jerusalem's Wailing Wall.
1974: NBC-TV's
wildly successful variety show, The Dean Martin Show, signs off after
nine years.
1974: Duke
Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia at age 75.
1975: Earth Wind and Fire went to No.1 on the US
singles chart with 'Shining Star', the group's first and only US No.1.
1979: The
three remaining members of Genesis give the fans a thrill by manning the box
office and selling their own tickets to the upcoming show at the Roxy in Los
Angeles.
1982: The
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Boz Scaggs, and Country Joe and the Fish
play a benefit concert for Vietnam vets at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
1982: Drummer Topper Headon left the Clash due to
his drug addiction.
1983: Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode & Erasure) and
Alison Moyet broke up the band Yaz.
1986: Riding
the wave of their inexplicable MTV-fueled comeback, the Monkees (minus Mike
Nesmith) begin their smash comeback tour at the Concord Hotel in New York's
Catskill Mountains.
1986: Country singer Garth Brooks married Sandy
Mahl. The couple divorced in 2000.
1990: Axl Rose (Guns ‘N’ Roses) and Erin Everly
filed for divorce. They had been married for less than a month.
1991: Gene
Clark (The Byrds, Dillard and Clark) died of a heart attack at age 46.
1992: Police in Montgomery were called when an
impostor posing as Steve Miller left a hotel owing a $600 unpaid bill, he did
however leave a $73 tip on a $8 drinks bill.
1994: Poison
singer Bret Michaels gets into a car crash.
1997: Hanson started a three week run at No.1 on
the US singles chart with 'MMMBop', the brothers first US No.1.
1998: Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell proclaimed May
24th "Van Halen Day" in Philadelphia.
2000: Chuck D testified to the U.S. Congress about
the benefits of Napster and online music distribution.
2000: Puff Daddy settled the last lawsuit that had
arisen from a 1991 stampede at a New York charity event.
2000: A New York Judge told Pretenders singer
Chrissie Hynde that if she wanted her March arrest for protesting the sale of
leather goods in a Gap store dismissed, she'd better keep her nose clean for
the next six months.
2000: Andrea and Sharon Corr from The Corrs both
collapsed in the mid-day sun whilst shooting their new video in the Mojave
Desert in California. The pair were treated in hospital for heat exhaustion and
were back on the set within 24 hours.
2003: Paul
McCartney sits down for tea with Russian premier Vladimir Putin, then heads to
Red Square for his very first performance behind the iron curtain, for an
audience of 20,000.
2004: An
auction of Bruce Springsteen's birth certificate on eBay is shut down by the
Boss' legal team.
2009: Billy Joel was being sued
by his former drummer for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties.
Liberty Devitto, claimed that Joel hadn't paid him proper royalties for 10
years of his work. Devitto was Joel's drummer from 1975 until 2005, when he
said he was abruptly thrown out of the band. He said: "People get fired,
they get severance or insurance for a certain period of time. I didn't even get
a phone call. It was cold."
2009: Jay Bennett, A
former member of Wilco who was suing the band over a royalties claim, died at
his home in Illinois at the age of 45. Jay Bennett worked as a sound engineer
and played instruments for the band between 1994 and 2001. Bennett filed his
legal action against Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy at the beginning of May,
claiming $50,000 for five albums he made with the group.
2010: Paul Gray, the bassist
with US metal band Slipknot, was found dead in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. The
body of the 38-year-old musician was found by an employee at the hotel in a
suburb of the city. Police said foul play was not suspected, but an autopsy
would be carried out. The nine members of Slipknot wore masks in public and
referred to other bandmates by numbers; Gray was number two.
