March 28

Birthdays

1923: Thad Jones (Jazz Trumpeter)

1945: Chuck Portz (Bass for The Turtles)

1948: John Evans (Keyboardist for Jethro Tull)

1948: Milan Williams (Keyboardist for The Commodores)

1954: Reba McEntire (Country Singer)

1965: Steve Turner (Guitar for Mudhoney)

1969:Cheryl James (Salt from Salt-n-Pepa)

1969: James Atkin (EMF)

1976: Dave Keuning (Guitarist for The Killer)

1986: Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta)

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: Radio Caroline, the UK's first all-day English-language "pirate" radio station, begins broadcasting from the Fredericia, a former Danish ferry, in the North Sea.

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: Led Zeppelin’s Album “Houses Of The Holy” is released.

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.

1981: Blondie started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Rapture', the group's fourth US No.1.

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 frontman 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.

2000: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page wins his libel lawsuit against Ministry, a UK magazine that claimed Page actually watched bandmate John Bonham choke to death while trying to revive him with Satanic spells.

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.