May 11

Births

1888: Irving Berlin (Composer)

1941: Eric Burdon (Singer for The Animals & Solo)

1947: Butch Trucks (Drummer for The Allman Brothers)

1966: Christoph "Doom" Schneider (Drummer for Rammstein)

1988: Ace Hood (Antoine McColister) (Rapper)

Events

1957: The Everly Brothers make their stage debut in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry.

1957: Buddy Holly and the Crickets fail an audition to appear on CBS-TV's Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.

1958: Connie Francis was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a cover of the 1923 song 'Who's Sorry Now.' Francis was the first female rock 'n' roll star to reach No.1.

1959: Annette Funicello makes her first appearance as Gina Minelli on tonight's "Gina From Italy" episode of CBS-TV's sitcom Make Room For Daddy.

1963: The Beatles started a 30 week run at No.1 on the UK album charts with their debut album 'Please Please Me', making it the longest running No.1 album by a group ever. The bands follow up 'With The Beatles' replaced it at the top of the charts on 7th December 1963 and stayed there for 21 weeks.

1964: Britain's latest hot group, the Rolling Stones, are nonetheless refused service for lunch at Bristol, England's Grand Hotel because they're not properly attired in jackets and ties. The next day, the Daily Express calls them "the ugliest group in Britain" and remarks, "The Rolling Stones gather no lunch."

1965: The Byrds make their television debut, singing their cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" on NBC's musical variety show Hullabaloo.

1967: ABC-TV broadcasts its musical special ABC Stage 67: Rodgers and Hart Today, featuring the songwriting duo's classics being reinterpreted by the likes of Bobby Darin, The Supremes, The Mamas and the Papas, and Petula Clark.

1970: Sammy Davis, Jr. marries his third wife, Altovise Gore, a dancer in his current Broadway hit Golden Boy. The Rev. Jesse Jackson presides; the couple would remain married for the rest of Davis' life.

1972: John Lennon makes another celebrated guest appearance on ABC-TV's Dick Cavett Show and casually tells Cavett that he believes the FBI is wiretapping his phone in order to gather evidence for his deportment. As it turns out, he's entirely correct.

1972: David Cassidy, then at the very peak of his career, appears in a controversial nearly-naked pose on the cover of Rolling Stone.

1974: Elvis Presley plays a show at the Los Angeles Forum, attended by members of Led Zeppelin who were also in town for a gig. Upon learning of his famous fans, Elvis turns to his backup band after a somewhat sloppy opening number and jokingly admonishes them: "Wait a minute. Let's see if we can start together, fellas, because we’ve got Led Zeppelin out there. Let's try to look like we know what we’re doing." Afterwards, the band meets Elvis backstage and is more than a little starstruck; Zeppelin manager Peter Grant and Elvis spontaneously swap their expensive watches, and then Robert Plant, just before the meeting breaks up, finally summons up the courage to sing Elvis' 1956 hit "Love Me." Elvis joins in for a few bars.

1975: Cher's new boyfriend, rocker Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers, appears as a guest on her CBS-TV show Cher.

1979: Lester Flatt (Flatt & Scruggs) dies of hear failure.

1981: In July 1977, Bob Marley was found to have acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of malignant melanoma from a wounded toe playing football. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death on this day. He was 36.

1988: On the occasion of his 100th birthday, legendary Tin Pan Alley songwriter Irving Berlin is serenaded by a crowd of fans singing his standards outside his New York apartment. That night, Carnegie Hall presents a program of the composer's hits.

1989: The late Roy Orbison is posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York, with Eric Clapton presenting the award to Orbison's widow.

1990: The late Ritchie Valens is finally awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6733 Hollywood Blvd.

1995: Jimmy Vaughn, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray reunited for a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn. All five had played with Vaughan at his last show on August 26, 1990, before he was killed in a helicopter crash.

1997: Trace Adkins marries Rhonda Forlaw at Nashville's Belle Meade Mansion in front of 800 people. Adkins sings a song he wrote for his bride: "The Rest Of Mine".

2002: Over 500 Michael Jackson fans held a demonstration outside the Sony records building in Berlin complaining that the label hadn’t promoted the singer's latest album ‘Invincible.’

2003: Jackson Browne is the guest star (as himself) on tonight's "Brake My Wife, Please" episode of Fox-TV's The Simpsons.

2003: Noel Redding (Guitarist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience) died from "shock hemorrhage due to oesophageal varices in reaction to cirrhosis of the liver".

2004: John Whitehead (McFadden and Whitehead) was murdered by two unknown gunmen while fixing his car on the street outside his Philadelphia home with his nephew.

2004: Willie Nelson cancels ten upcoming concerts in order to get some much-needed carpal tunnel surgery.

2006: George Michael was involved in his second minor car crash in a month after a tabloid photographer found Michael asleep in his parked car in central London. The singer crashed into a bollard after he woke up and was driving away.

2007: Rapper, The Game, was arrested at his home in connection with an incident at a basketball game in South Los Angeles in February 2007. He was alleged to have threatened a person with a gun. The rapper was released the next day, after posting $50,000 bail.

2008: John Rutsey (Original Drummer for Rush) died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack, related to complications from diabetes.