Births
1898 Morris Stoloff, arranger, (1956 US No.1 & UK No.7 single 'Moonglow and Theme From Picnic', arranged film music including 'Lawrence Of Arabia'). Died 6th April 1980.
1942 Jerry Garcia, guitar, vocals, The Grateful Dead, (1970 UK No.69 and US No.127 album, 'Workingman's Dead'). Garcia died from a drugs-related heart attack on 9th August 1995.
1946 Boz Burrell, Bad Company, (1974 UK No.15 & US No.5 single 'Can't Get Enough'). Member of King Crimson.
1947 Rick Anderson bass, The Tubes, (1977 UK No.28 single 'White Punks On Dope', 1983 US No.10 single 'She's A Beauty').
1947 Ricky Coonce, Grass Roots, (1968 US No.5 single 'Midnight Confessions', plus 13 other US Top 40 singles).
1951 Tommy Bolin, guitarist. Joined Deep Purple in 1975, member of Zephyr and The James Gang. Bolin died of a heroin overdose on 4th December 1976.
1953 Robert Cray, singer, Blues guitarist, (1987 UK No.50 single 'Right Next Door, Because Of Me').
1959 Joe Elliott, vocals, Def Leppard, (1987 UK No.6 single 'Animal' 1987 world wide No.1 album 'Hysteria'1988 US No.1 single 'Love Bites').
1960 Chuck D, (Carlton Ridenhour), Public Enemy, (1988 UK No.18 single 'Don't Believe The Hype').
1960 Suzi Gardner, guitar, vocals, L7, (1992 UK No. 21 single 'Pretend We're Dead').
1963 Coolio, (Artis Ivey Jr), 1995 US & UK No.1 single 'Gangsta's Paradise'.
1964 Adam Duritz, Counting Crows (1994 UK No.28 single 'Mr Jones' 1996 US No.1 album 'Recovering The Satellites').
1964 Nick Christian Sayer guitar, Transvision Vamp ,(1989 UK No.3 single 'Baby I Don't Care').
1968 Dan Donegan, guitar, Disturbed, (2005 US No.1 album 'Ten Thousand Fists').
1970 Kenwyn House, guitar, Reef, (1996 UK No. 6 single 'Place Your Hands', 1997 UK No.1 album 'Glow).
1981 Ashley Parker, O-Town, winners of US TV show 'Making The Band' (2001 US No.3 single 'All Or Nothing' 2001 UK No.3 single 'Liquid Dreams').
Deaths
1964 US singer Johnny Burnette was killed in a boating accident on Clear Lake California, aged 30. 1961 US No.8 & UK No.3 single 'Your Sixteen'.
Events
1954 The "Moondog Jubilee of Stars Under the Stars" took place at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Acts on the bill included Fats Domino, Muddy Waters, the Clovers, the Orioles, and Little Walter.
1960 Aretha Franklin made her first secular recordings, which included "Today I Sing the Blues."
1960 Chubby Checker's "The Twist" was released.
1960 Elvis Presley was named Public Enemy #1 by the East German newspaper, "Young World."
1963 The first 'Beatles Monthly' was published. A magazine devoted to the group, it continued until 1969 and at its peak was selling over 350,000 copies a month.
1964 The Beatles scored their fifth US No.1 single in seven months when 'A Hard Day's Night' went to the top of the charts. The group had now spent seventeen weeks at the No.1 position in this year.
1965 Marianne Faithfull collapsed during a concert in Morecambe England and was forced to cancel all forthcoming engagements.
1968 Mick Jagger's movie "Performance" was released.
1968 During a North American tour The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared at City Park Stadium, New Orleans, Louisiana.
1969 The three day US Atlantic City Pop Festival took place with BB King, Janis Joplin, Santana, Joni Mitchell, Three Dog Night, Dr John, Procol Harum, Arthur Brown, Little Richard and Canned Heat.
1970 The film 'Performance' featuring Mick Jagger had its UK premiere in London.
1971 "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" was debuted on CBS-TV.
1971 Tony Kaye quit Yes to form Badger. He was replaced by Rick Wakeman.
1971 The Concert For Bangla Desh, organised by George Harrison to aid victims of famine and war in Bangla Desh took place at New York's Madison Sq Garden. Featuring Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar and members from Badfinger.
1973 The movie "American Graffiti" opened.
1977 The book "Elvis: What Happened?" went on sale. The book was written by two of Elvis' ex-bodyguards.
1980 George Harrison formed a production company called ''Hand Made Films Productions.''
1980 Ultravox kicked off a 15 date UK tour at Cardiff's Top Rank.
1980 Def Leppard made their US live debut when they appeared at the New York City concert opening for AC/DC. It was also Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott's 21st birthday.
1981 MTV made its debut at 12:01am. The first video to be shown was ''Video Killed the Radio Star'' by the Buggles.
1981 Australian singer Rick Springfield started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Jessie's Girl', a No.43 hit in the UK. Rick had played Noah Drake in the TV show 'General Hospital'.
1981 Shakin' Stevens had his second UK No.1 single with his version of the Frankie Vaughan hit 'Green Door'.
1987 Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama) and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) were married.
1987 Bob Seger scored his first US No.1 single with 'Shakedown', taken from the film 'Beverly Hills Cop II'.
1987 Los Lobos were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of the Ritchie Valens song 'La Bamba' also a No.1 hit in the US. The song was the title track from the film based on Ritchie Valens who died in the same plane crash the killed Buddy Holly.
1987 MTV Europe was launched, the first video played being 'Money For Nothing' by Dire Straits which contained the appropriate line 'I Want My MTV'.
1988 Appearing live at Main Road, FC, Manchester, England, Pink Floyd, tickets cost L15.
1990 UB40 were deported from the Seychelles after police discovered marijuana in their hotel rooms.
1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announced that they had been married 11 weeks earlier in the Dominican Republic.
1994 The Rolling Stones 12th North American tour kicked off in Washington DC.
1996 MTV launched another channel known as M2.
1998 Sandra Crouch was ordained as pastor of her church. This was in spite of the ban on woman ministers by the Church of God in Christ.
1998 The Spice Girls scored their seventh UK No.1 single with 'Viva Forever'.
1999 Ronan Keating scored his first UK No.1 solo single with 'When You Say Nothing At All'.
2000 Madonna's forthcoming single 'Music' had its release date brought forward by two weeks after the track was made available as an illegal MP3 file on the Internet.
2002 A new book 'Show the Girl the Door' written by a former tour manager disclosed some strange demands by female acts. It revealed that Shania Twain would travel with a sniffer dog in case of bombs. Jennifer Lopez liked her dressing room to be all white, including carpets flowers and furniture. Cher would have high security rooms for her wigs. Janet jackson would have a full medical team on standby including a doctor nurse and throat specialist and Britney Spears would demand her favourite Gummie Bear soft sweets.
2004 Red Hot Chili Peppers went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Live In Hyde Park', the bands second UK No.1.
2004 Ashlee Simpson started a five week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Autobiography.'
2004 Juvenile feat Soulja Slim were at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Slow Motion.'
2004 Busted scored their fourth UK No.1 single with 'Thunderbirds / 3am.'
2007 Eminem's publishing company were seeking more than $75,000 (36,900 Pounds) for copyright infringement and unfair competition against computer firm Apple for allegedly selling his music on iTunes without permission. Apple were paying Eminem's record label for each download - but Eight Mile Style argued it had not approved the deal.
2007 John Lennon's sunglasses were sold on an auction for more than 1 million Pounds.
