June 29

Births

1901: Nelson Eddy (Pop Singer)

1910: Frank Loesser (Broadway Songwriter)

1922: Ralph Burns (Bandleader)

1929: Johnny Ace (John Marshall Alexander) (R&B Singer)

1943: Little Eva (Eva Narcissus Boyd) (Pop Singer)

1948: Ian Paice (Drummer for Deep Purple & Whitesnake)

1948: Bill Kirchen (Guitar for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen)

1953: Colin Hay (Singer for Men At Work)

1953: Don Dokken (Singer for Dokken)

1978: Nicole Scherzinger (Lead Singer in Eden’s Crush & Pussycat Dolls)

1979: Tim McCord (Bass for Evanescence)

Events

1957: The government of Iran officially bans rock and roll after declaring rock dancing "as harmful to health." The ban would stay in place until the 1990s.

1957: Buddy Holly released "Peggy Sue".

1959: Dick Clark announces his first series of four "Caravan of Stars" concerts over the course of the next year, with his first being headlined by the Skyliners of "Since I Don't Have You" fame.

1963: Beatles' 1st song "From Me to You" hits UK charts.

1967: Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is sentenced to three months in jail and lead singer Mick Jagger to a full year after a raid of Richards' home in February turned up cannabis residue. After a public outpouring of sympathy, including a famous essay in the London Times defending the pair ("Who Breaks A Butterfly Upon A Wheel?" July 1, 1967), Richards' charges are dropped and Jagger's reduced to probation.

1967: While on tour with the Hollies, Graham Nash writes a song called "Marrakesh Express," which will later find a home (and a hit) with his new band, Crosby Stills and Nash.

1969: The Jimi Hendrix Experience play their last gig together at the Denver Pop Festival.

1969: R&B Singer Shorty Long and a friend drowned when their boat capsized on the Detroit River in Michigan.  He was 29 Years old.

1970: NBC-TV presents the Liza Minnelli special Liza, also starring songwriters Anthony Newley, Jimmy Webb, and Randy Newman.

1973: Deep Purple "Mark II," the most famous incarnation of the band, comes to an end after tonight's show in Osaka, Japan, with lead singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover abruptly quitting the group.

1974: Neil Peart replaces John Rutsey as the drummer for Rush.

1974: Singer songwriter Gordon Lightfoot scored his only US No.1 single with 'Sundown'.

1975: Elton John appears onstage with the Doobie Brothers in Oakland, CA, for an impromptu duet on the Doobies hit "Listen To The Music."

1975: Singer/Songwriter Tim Buckley died from a morphine & heroin overdose at age 28.

1976: The Memphis City Council votes to change Elvis' home street, Highway 51 South, to "Elvis Presley Boulevard."

1978: While driving with his girlfriend in the Bahamas, Peter Frampton crashes and severely injures himself, breaking his arm, cracking several ribs, causing a concussion, and cutting short his rise to superstardom as he mends in a local hospital for months.

1979: Lowell George (Singer for Little Feat) collapsed in his Arlington, Virginia hotel room and died. An autopsy showed that he died of an accidental drug overdose.

1985: New York's Cooper-Hewitt museum fetches a record $3,006,385 for John Lennon's "Roller," a 1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V painted groovy psychedelic colors by Apple associates The Fool.

1985: In order to create a new single as part of the massive Live Aid series of concerts, Mick Jagger and David Bowie rush into a recording studio and produce their hit cover of Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing In The Street" in under 12 hours. As with the concerts, all proceeds go to feed victims of the Ethiopian hunger crisis.

1988: Brenda Richie, wife of former Commodore and current solo star Lionel, is arrested for assault after allegedly striking her husband after finding him in bed with another woman. She is later released on $5,000 bail.

1994: Barbra Streisand sets a new record after grossing $16 million for a series of Madison Square Garden comeback shows.

1995: Ringo Starr's first-ever TV commercial, for Pizza Hut, debuts in the US, as does a similar spot by the newly-reformed Monkees.

1996: It was reported that US record company bosses were considering random drug tests for pop stars similar to those carried out on athletes to try and reduce the drug death toll in the industry.

1998: George Harrison shocks the world with an announcement that he is currently undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer, assuring his fans that he's fine and that "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet." Harrison would succumb to the disease three years later.

1999: Former teen heartthrob Leif Garrett is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cocaine.

1999: Michael Jackson suffered severe bruising after falling over 50 feet when a bridge collapsed during a concert at Munich's Olympic stadium. Jacko was singing 'Earth Song' at the time of the accident.

2000: The casket holding Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt is stolen from its mausoleum in Jacksonville, FL, but left after vandals were unable to open it; member Steve Gaines' ashes are spilled from his urn, which is also stolen.

2000: Eight men were trampled to death during Pearl Jam's performance at The Roskilde festival, near Copenhagen. Police said the victims had all slipped or fallen in the mud in front of the stage.

2000: Eminem’s mother went to court claiming defamation of character in a $10 million civil suit, after taking exception to the line “My mother smokes more dope than I do” from her son’s single ‘My Name Is’.

2002: Singer Rosemary Clooney died of lung cancer at age 74.

2007: George McCorkle (Guitarist for Marshall Tucker Band) died from cancer at 49 years old.

2007: Lily Allen was questioned by police over an alleged assault on a photographer outside a nightclub in London. She was freed on police bail after she was quizzed about an alleged assault on a male photographer in his 40s near the Wardour club in London's Soho in March.