May 24

Births

1938: Tommy Chong (Cheech and Chong)

1941: Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) (Singer & Songwriter)

1944: Patti LaBelle (R&B Singer)

1945: Priscilla Presley

1947: Cynthia "Plaster" Caster (Artist)

1949: John Illsley (Bass for Dire Straits)

1955: Rosanne Cash (Country Singer)

1960: Guy Fletcher (Keyboards for Roxy Music & Dire Straits)

1967: Heavy D (Dwight Arrington Myers ) (Rapper)

1967: Steve McDonald (Bass for Redd Kross)

1969: Rich Robinson (Guitar for The Black Crowes)

1970: Tommy Page (Guitarist & Singer)

1976: Alessandro Cortini (Keyboards for Nine Inch Nails)

1988: Billy Gilman (Country Singer)

Events

1963: Blues guitarist Elmore James died after his third heart attack while in Chicago at age 45.

1964: On "The Ed Sullivan Show," a taped Beatles performance was played. The Beatles performed "You Can't Do That" from the set of "A Hard Day's Night."

1965: John Lennon's second book, A Spaniard In The Works, is published.

1968: Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull were arrested for drug possession.

1969: The Guess Who make their debut on American television, singing "These Eyes" and "Laughing" on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

1970: Peter Green plays his last show with the band he founded, Fleetwood Mac, at the Bath Festival in Somerset, England.

1971: In honor of Bob Dylan's 30th birthday, Peanuts runs a strip in which Linus mentions the milestone to Charlie Brown, who replies "That's the most depressing thing I've ever heard." Dylan himself marks the occasion at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall.

1974: NBC-TV's wildly successful variety show, The Dean Martin Show, signs off after nine years.

1974: Duke Ellington died of lung cancer and pneumonia at age 75.

1975: Earth Wind and Fire went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Shining Star', the group's first and only US No.1.

1979: The three remaining members of Genesis give the fans a thrill by manning the box office and selling their own tickets to the upcoming show at the Roxy in Los Angeles.

1982: The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Boz Scaggs, and Country Joe and the Fish play a benefit concert for Vietnam vets at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

1982: Drummer Topper Headon left the Clash due to his drug addiction.

1983: Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode & Erasure) and Alison Moyet broke up the band Yaz.

1986: Riding the wave of their inexplicable MTV-fueled comeback, the Monkees (minus Mike Nesmith) begin their smash comeback tour at the Concord Hotel in New York's Catskill Mountains.

1986: Country singer Garth Brooks married Sandy Mahl. The couple divorced in 2000.

1990: Axl Rose (Guns ‘N’ Roses) and Erin Everly filed for divorce. They had been married for less than a month.

1991: Gene Clark (The Byrds, Dillard and Clark) died of a heart attack at age 46.

1992: Police in Montgomery were called when an impostor posing as Steve Miller left a hotel owing a $600 unpaid bill, he did however leave a $73 tip on a $8 drinks bill.

1994: Poison singer Bret Michaels gets into a car crash.

1997: Hanson started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'MMMBop', the brothers first US No.1.

1998: Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell proclaimed May 24th "Van Halen Day" in Philadelphia.

2000: Chuck D testified to the U.S. Congress about the benefits of Napster and online music distribution.

2000: Puff Daddy settled the last lawsuit that had arisen from a 1991 stampede at a New York charity event.

2000: A New York Judge told Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde that if she wanted her March arrest for protesting the sale of leather goods in a Gap store dismissed, she'd better keep her nose clean for the next six months.

2000: Andrea and Sharon Corr from The Corrs both collapsed in the mid-day sun whilst shooting their new video in the Mojave Desert in California. The pair were treated in hospital for heat exhaustion and were back on the set within 24 hours.

2003: Paul McCartney sits down for tea with Russian premier Vladimir Putin, then heads to Red Square for his very first performance behind the iron curtain, for an audience of 20,000.

2004: An auction of Bruce Springsteen's birth certificate on eBay is shut down by the Boss' legal team.

2009: Billy Joel was being sued by his former drummer for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties. Liberty Devitto, claimed that Joel hadn't paid him proper royalties for 10 years of his work. Devitto was Joel's drummer from 1975 until 2005, when he said he was abruptly thrown out of the band. He said: "People get fired, they get severance or insurance for a certain period of time. I didn't even get a phone call. It was cold."

2010: Paul Gray, the bassist with US metal band Slipknot, was found dead in a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa. The body of the 38-year-old musician was found by an employee at the hotel in a suburb of the city. Police said foul play was not suspected, but an autopsy would be carried out. The nine members of Slipknot wore masks in public and referred to other bandmates by numbers; Gray was number two.