May 21

Births

1904: Fats Waller (Jazz Pianist)

1941: Ronald Isley (The Isley Brothers)

1943: Hilton Valentine (Guitarist for The Animals)

1943: John Dalton (Bass for The Kinks)

1947: Bill Champlin (Vocals, Keyboard & Guitar for Chicago)

1948: Leo Sayer (Singer / Songwriter)

1950: Roger Hodgson (Vocals & Keyboards for Supertramp & Solo)

1952: Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud)

1954: Marc Ribot (Guitarist)

1955: Stan Lynch (Drums for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)

1958: Mike Barson (Keyboards for Madness)

1963: Kevin Shields (Vocals & Guitar for My Bloody Valentine)

1964: Martin Blunt (Bass for The Charlatans)

1972: The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, aka Christopher G. Wallace)

1974: Havoc (Kejuan Muchita) (Rapper in Mobb Deep)

1980: Gotye (Wouter "Wally" De Backer) (Singer / Songwriter)

Events

1956: 2,500 fans storm the stage at the Municipal Auditorium in Topeka, KS during Elvis Presley's show there.

1960: Fabian is reported to be working on two upcoming movies: High Time, starring Bing Crosby, and North To Alaska, starring John Wayne.

1964: After performing in England, Bob Dylan takes a vacation in Paris, where he would meet German model Nico, for whom he would later pen the classic "I'll Keep It With Mine."

1966: The Castiles, a band made up of five school kids from Freehold Regional High in New Jersey, perform at their own senior prom. Lead singer: future superstar Bruce Springsteen.

1968: Police raid the London flat of the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones and find marijuana, which Jones claims was left behind by a friend; although already on probation, he is merely fined $300 by a sympathetic judge.

1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a ten-day "bed-in" in Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

1970: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded "Ohio."

1971: Free announce their breakup; two of the band members would go on to form Bad Company.

1974: Two would-be concert promoters were arrested by police on fraud charges in connection with selling mail order tickets for a forthcoming Elten John show. (Elten with an E and not an O). Police took away over $12,000 in checks.

1979: Elton John plays the first of eight historic concerts in Moscow, making him the first rock star to perform there.

1980: After poor ticket sales cause him to cancel his second concert there, Bob Dylan his last "gospel" show in Dayton, OH, eventually returning to secular music.

1980: A thief brook into Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the recording studio built by Jimi Hendrix and stole five Hendrix gold records for the albums ‘Are You Experienced?’, ‘Axis: Bold as Love’, ‘Cry of Love’, ‘Rainbow Bridge’ and ‘Live at Monterey’.

1980: Joe Strummer of The Clash was arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany, after smashing his guitar over the head of a member of the audience; he was released after an alcohol test proved negative.

1981: Bob Marley is laid to rest, with full state honors, in St. Ann's, Jamaica.

1983: Ex-Doobie Brother Michael McDonald marries his first wife, singer Amy Holland.

1985: Marvin Gaye's "Dream of a Lifetime" was released. It was his last album.

1994: Country singer Trisha Yearwood weds Robert Reynolds.

2001: Producer, arranger and keyboardist Tommy Eyre died of cancer aged 51. Worked with George Harrison, Wham! Dusty Springfield, and BB King. Played and arranged Joe Cocker's hit 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'.

2003: Paul McCartney is awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the conservatory of Russia's St. Petersburg University.

2003: Mariah Carey hit back at Eminem's threats to sample the slushy voicemail messages she left on his mobile. Carey described the rapper as "a little girl" saying it's "like dealing with a girlfriend in 7th grade, and he shouldn't do it because it'll get him in a bit of trouble with her lawyers."

2007: Creed Singer Scott Stapp was arrested at his Florida home and charged with assault. The 33-year-old was held without bail following the charges, which related to a domestic assault.

2008: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, well-known for having overcome drug addiction decades earlier, shocks the rock world by checking into a rehab facility in Pasadena, CA.

2008: Lou Pearlman, the music mogul who created the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison over a decades-long scam that swindled thousands of investors out of their life savings. Many victims were Pearlman's relatives, friends and retirees in their 70s or 80s who lost everything.

2009: Natalie Cole was recovering after undergoing a kidney transplant. The 59-year-old daughter of Nat King Cole had decided to postpone her summer tour, set to begin in June, as she recovered.

2010: U2's lead singer Bono had emergency spinal surgery after suffering an injury while preparing for tour dates. The 50-year-old singer was treated at a specialist neurosurgery clinic in Munich and was expected to stay there for a number of days.

2011: Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Joss Stone, Damian Marley and A.R. Rahman teamed up for a new supergroup called Super Heavy.