July 12

Births

1927: Conte Candoli (Jazz Trumpeter)

1934: Van Cliburn (Piano Player)

1943: Christine McVie (Keyboards & Vocals for Fleetwood Mac)

1949: Eric Carr (Paul Charles Caravell) (Drummer for KISS)

1952: Liz Mitchell (Singer for Boney M)

1952: Philip Taylor Kramer (Bass for Iron Butterfly)

1962: Dan Murphy (Guitar for Soul Asylum)

1964: Tim Gane (Guitar & Keyboards for Stereolab)

1965: Robin Wilson (Singer for The Gin Blossoms)

Events

1954: A nineteen-year-old Elvis Presley officially quits his job as a truck driver for Crown Electric in Memphis after signing a one-year contract with Sun Records (and a similar management contract with his bassist, Scotty Moore).

1959: Legendary DJ Alan Freed attempts to capture the magic of Dick Clark's American Bandstand on ABC by staging his own weekly rock and roll show on the same network, The Big Beat (named after a Fats Domino song). Frankie Lymon, the Everly Brothers and Connie Francis guest star on this first show, but the series is canceled after 13 weeks.

1962: The Rolling Stones make their live debut at the Marquee Club in London (a group name founder Brian Jones picked at random from a Muddy Waters album he spotted while on the phone with the promoter). The band at this point features Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jones, with Dick Taylor, later of the Pretty Things, on bass and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums. They were paid $40.

1962: Ray Charles was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with the Don Gibson penned country ballad 'I Can't Stop Loving You', his only UK No.1.

1964: George Harrison crashes his E-Type Jaguar on New Kings Road in London while en route to a Beatles concert in Brighton, suffering minor injuries. Fans pick up shards of broken glass from the crime scene as souvenirs.

1968: The Monkees' Micky Dolenz marries Samantha Juste, a model known as the "disc girl" on the BBC's longtime series Top Of The Pops. Dolenz, who met her on the show, wrote the British smash "Randy Scouse Git" in part about her. The couple would divorce in 1975.

1969: The Temptations Show, a Motown special featuring the group, airs in syndication. The group performs, among other hits, "Get Ready," "Cloud Nine," and "Runaway Child, Running Wild."

1979: Gerry Meier and Steve Dahl, DJs at Chicago's WLUP radio stage a "disco demolition" night at Comiskey Park, with a public bonfire of disco vinyl records taking place between games of a White Sox / Detroit Tigers doubleheader. Unfortunately, fans begin tossing the records around like frisbees during the first game, and by the time of the bonfire, mini-riots (and other fires) had broken out around the stadium, forcing the Sox to forfeit the second game. (Dahl had been fired from a rival station, WDAI, after it switched to an all-disco format.)

1979: Minnie Riperton died from cancer at age 51.

1983: Former Traffic member Chris Wood died of liver failure after a lengthy illness. Also played with Jimi Hendrix in 1968, appearing on the Electric Ladyland album and worked with both John Martyn and the Small Faces.  He was 39 Years old.

1986: Boy George and singer Marilyn were arrested in London, England for possession of drugs.

1992: Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses) was arrested at New York's JFK airport on a warrant from St. Louis, MO. Rose was wanted on charges stemming from a 1991 Guns N' Roses concert.

1996: Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was charged with drug possession after the death of the bands keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin in his New York Hotel room.

1997 - Anthony Keidis (Singer for Red Hot Chili Peppers) suffered a broken wrist in a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles, CA.

1999: DMX was arrested in Trinidad in mid-concert for using obscene language.

1999: Fred Durst (Singer for Limp Bizkit) was arrested in St. Paul, MN, for allegedly kicking a local security guard in the head during the band's performance.

2000: Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) publicly denies any financial involvement with the terrorist group Hamas after Israel denies him entry into the country, alleging he gave money to the organization.

2000: London's Trafalgar Square unveils a sculpture of John Lennon, created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reutersward, which also features a handgun twisted into an unusable shape.

2001: New Orleans' Moisant Airport, named for an early 20th-century flying daredevil, is renamed Armstrong International in honor of native jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong.

2003: Saxophonist, composer and arranger Benny Carter died aged 95. He worked with Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and composed many TV theme's including Ironside and M-Squad.

2008: Rolling Stone Ron Wood left his wife of 23 years and moved in with an 18-year-old Russian cocktail waitress. The 61 year-old dad-of-four had met the teenager while out drinking and had taken her away to his luxury pad in Ireland.