April 7

Births

1908: Percy Faith (Conductor)

1915: Billie Holiday (Jazz Singer)

1920: Ravi Shankar (Indian Sitar Player)

1937: Charlie Thomas (The Drifters)

1938: Spencer Dryden (Drummer for Jefferson Airplane)

1943: Mick Abrahams (Guitarist for Jethro Tull)

1947: Florian Schneider-Esleben (Kraftwerk)

1949: John Oates (Guitar & Vocals in Hall and Oates)

1951: Janis Ian (Folk Singer / Songwriter)

Events

1956: The first national rock and roll radio series, Alan Freed's Rock 'N' Roll Dance Party, debuts on the CBS Radio Network.

1956: The Platters make their television debut on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show, broadcast on CBS.

1958: The Capitol label officially abandons issuing 78 rpm records.

1958: The Platters released the single "Twilight Time".

1962: Elvis Presley arrives in Hawaii to begin shooting the ocean shots for his latest film, Blue Hawaii. At his hotel, the Kaiser Hawaiian Village, he is mobbed by over a thousand fans and sprints away from them, losing several pieces of jewelry in the process. (His ring was returned the next day.)

1962: Unknown London musicians Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, attending a performance of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated at the Ealing Jazz Club, meet a young guitarist named Brian Jones.

1967: San Francisco's KMPX becomes the first FM station to play "deep cuts" from albums, rather than merely singles, a "free-form" non-format that will soon transform rock radio.

1970: B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," featured in the Robert Redford / Paul Newman film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, wins Best Original Song at this year's Academy Awards.

1975: Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore leaves the group to form Rainbow. He will be replaced by Tommy Bolin.

1979: Siouxsie And The Banshees played a charity gig for MENCAP, but after crowd trouble were latter faced with a $4000 bill for seat damage.

1979: The Doobie Brothers went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Minute By Minute', the group's only US chart topper.

1981: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play their first concert outside North America, opening their new tour at the Congress Centre in Hamburg, Germany.

1981: Kit Lambert (Producer & Manager of The Who) died of a cerebral hemorrhage after falling down the stairs of his mother's house.

1985: Wham! became the first western pop group to perform live in China, when they played at the workers gymnasium in Beijing.

1985: Prince ended his 32-city tour in Miami, FL, and said that he was withdrawing from live performances for "an indeterminate number of years.

1988: While rehearsing a morbid "hanging" stunt for his upcoming tour, Alice Cooper is nearly killed when the safety rope breaks, leaving him swinging in the air for a few moments. Fortunately, a roadie quickly steps in and gets him down.

1994: Percy Sledge pleads guilty to evading taxes on $260,000 of his income and is sentenced to six months in prison (which he is allowed to serve in a "halfway house").

1994: Courtney Love was arrested on drugs and theft charges after a reported overdose. At this time, Love was unaware that her husband Kurt Cobain was dead at their home.

1995: Airport police seized a loaded pistol from Eddie Van Halen's carry-on luggage. No charges were filed.

1997: Oasis singer Liam Gallagher married actress Patsy Kensit at Marylebone Registry office, London. They divorced three years later.

1997: An Amsterdam university began offering a course entitled "Madonna 101."

1998: George Michael was arrested at The Will Rogers Memorial Park for committing a sex act in a public toilet. He was arrested by undercover Beverly Hills police officer Marcelo Rodriguez. Michael later said; "I was followed into the restroom and this cop - well, I didn't know he was a cop at the time obviously – started playing this game. I think it's called ‘I'll show you mine, you show me yours, and then when you show me yours, I'm gonna nick you!" The singer was later fined $810 after being convicted of a "lewd act."

2001: Paul McCartney bought the four-bedroom Beverly Hills home of Courtney Love for $3.995m. The gated 1930's house had it's own swimming pool and 1.5 acres of land.

2006: A fan site for the legendary psych-pop band Love reports (correctly) that leader Arthur Lee is dying from leukemia.

2008: Bob Dylan is awarded an honorary Pulitzer for "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

2008: Olivia Newton-John begins a walk across the entire length of China's Great Wall in order to raise funds for and awareness of the battle to cure breast cancer. The walk will take three weeks and cover 141 miles.

2011: Tennessee Highway Patrol officers arrested rapper Webbie on drug possession and tampering with evidence charges after he was pulled over following a performance in Kentucky.  Webbie, whose real name is Webster Gradney Jr., was riding in a rental car that was stopped south of Nashville. Authorities say the 25-year-old rapper from Baton Rouge, La., was found with $13,000 and 2 ounces of marijuana. Troopers also say he threw marijuana out the car window.