Births
1925 B.B.King, US blues guitarist, (1964 US No.34 single 'Rock Me Baby', 1989 UK No.6 single with U2 'When Love Comes To Town'). Major influence on Eric Clapton.
1942 Bernie Calvert, bass, The Hollies, (joined in 1966, 1972 US No.2 single 'Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress', 1988 UK No.1 single 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother', first released in 1969.
1944 Betty Kelly, Martha And The Vandellas, (1964 US No.2 & 1969 UK No.4 single 'Dancing In The Street').
1948 Kenny Jones, drummer, Small Faces, (1967 UK No.3 single 'Itchycoo Park' & 1968 UK No.1 album 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake'). The Faces, (1972 UK No.6 single 'Stay With Me'). The Who (after Keith Moon, 1981 UK No.9 single 'You Better You Bet').
1950 David Bellamy, Bellamy Brothers, (1976 US No.1 single 'Let Your Love Flow', 1979 UK No.3 single 'If I Said I Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me').
1952 Ron Blair, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, (1977 single 'American Girl', 1989 UK No.28 single 'I Won't Back Down', 1991 UK No.3 album 'Into The Great Wide Open').
1953 Alan Barton, Black Lace, (1984 UK No.2 single 'Agadoo'). Barton died on 23rd March 1995.
1954 Colin Newman, Wire, (1989 UK No.68 single 'Eardrum Buzz').
1961 Bilinda Butcher, My Bloody Valentine, (1991 UK No.29 single 'To Here Knows When').
1962 Stephen Jones, singer, guitarist, Babybird, (1996 UK No.3 single 'You're Gorgeous', 1996 UK No. 9 album 'Ugly Beautiful').
1963 Richard Marx, singer, songwriter, (1989 US No.1 & UK No.2 single 'Right Here Waiting', 1992 UK No.3 single 'Hazard').
1969 Justine Frischmann, guitar, vocals, Elastica, (1995 UK No.13 single 'Waking Up'). Also a member of early Suede.
1975 Shannon Noll, Australian singer, runner-up of the first series of Australian Idol (2003). 2004 Australian No.1 single 'What About Me?'
1976 Tina Barrett, vocals, S Club 7, (1999 UK No.1 single 'Bring It All Back'). 2000 UK No.1 album '7' spent over a year on the UK chart.
1977 Musiq Soulchild, (Talib Johnson), American R&B artist, (2007 US No.1 album 'Luvanmusiq').
1984 Katie Melua, UK singer, songwriter, (2004 UK No.1 album 'Call Off The Search', 2004 UK Top 10 single 'The Closest Thing To Crazy', 2007 UK No.1 single 'What a Wonderful World' with Eva Cassidy).
Deaths
1967 A British radio station mistakenly announced that singer Engelbert Humperdinck had died in a car crash.
1977 Marc Bolan (T. Rex) died in a car accident at the age of 29.
2004 Weather Girls singer Izora Armstead died aged 62 of heart failure at a hospital in San Leandro, East San Francisco. Also member of Two Tons O' Fun featured on four Sylvester albums, including '(You Make Me Feel) Mighty Real.'
Events
1920 Enrico Caruso recorded his last work for Victor Records.
1938 "Boogie Woogie" was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra.
1956 Anne Shelton was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Lay Down Your Arms.'
1963 'She Loves You' by The Beatles was released by Swan Records in the US. Although the song is currently number one in the UK, 'She Loves You' was ignored in the US until 1964 when it would reach the top of the US Pop chart.
1964 "Shindig!" premiered on ABC. The first show opened with Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, The Wellingtons, The Righteous Brothers, Bobby Sherman and Alan Sues.
1965 The second season of "Shindig!" was opened with the Rolling Stones performing "Satisfaction." The Kinks, Byrds and Everly Brothers also appeared on the season opener.
1965 The Grace Cathedral in San Francisco was the site of Duke Ellington's first concert.
1966 The Metropolitan Opera opened its new opera house at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
1966 Pete Quafe left the Kinks and was replaced by John Dalton.
1966 Member of Parliament Tom Drilberg asked Britain's House of Commons to officially "deplore" the action of a magistrate who'd earlier called the Rolling Stones "complete morons...who wear filthy clothes."
1967 Working at Abbey Road studios in London The Beatles recorded 11 takes of 'Your Mother Should Know', giving the song a stronger beat, but this version of the song was discarded in favour of the original recording.
1970 Led Zeppelin won 'best group' in the Melody Maker readers Poll. This was the first time in eight years that The Beatles hadn't won 'best group.'
1970 Jimi Hendrix made his final public appearance. He appeared with Eric Burdon and War at a club in London. The opening performance was Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra."
1971 During a North American tour Led Zeppelin played the first of two nights at Honolulu Civic Auditorium.
1972 Rod Stewart had his second UK No.1 album with 'Never A Dull Moment.'
1972 Three Dog Night scored their third US No.1 single with 'Black and White', the single didn't chart in the UK.
1972 Appearing at this years Buxton Festival in Derbyshire, England, Wishbone Ash, Family, Steppenwolf, John Kay Band, Slade, Uriah Heep, Roy Wood and Wizzard, Wild Angels, Glencoe and Sunshine, Cold Comfort Farm.
1978 The Grateful Dead recorded a concert at the pyramids in Egypt.
1978 Boston went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Don't Look Back'.
1978 During a UK tour Blondie played two shows at London's Hammersmith Odeon, with guests The Boyfriends.
1979 The first rap single was released, The Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight'.
1980 Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall officially opened.
1983 Appearing at The Moles Club, Bath, England, The Smiths.
1985 KISS released the album "Asylum."
1988 Former Clash drummer Topper Headon was released from jail after serving 10 months of a 15-month sentence on a narcotics charge.
1989 Gloria Estefan went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Don't Wanna Lose You', a No.6 hit in the UK.
1989 U2 jammed with B.B. King on a boat rented for the blues legends 64th birthday in Sydney Harbour, Sydney, Australia.
1991 Willie Nelson and makeup artist Ann-Marie D'Angelo got married.
1992 Barbara Streisand made her first live appearance in six years at a fundraiser for the U.S. Democratic party.
1993 Grace Slick's home was destroyed by fire.
1995 Appearing at The Whisky A Go-Go, Los Angeles, Kara's Flowers (later to become Maroon 5).
1996 21 year-old Ricardo Lopez was found dead in his Hollywood apartment after committing suicide. Before his death Ricardo had mailed an acid bomb to Icelandic singer Bjork's London management.
1997 The Delfins debuted their first album "Azul" ("Blue") in Madrid's Las Venats bullfight arena.
1998 The members of Mott The Hoople played together for the first time in 24 years at the Virgin Megastore on London's Oxford Street.
1998 At a Sotheby's auction a notebook belonging to former Beatles roadie Mal Evans containing the lyrics to 'Hey Jude' sold for Ł111,500, a two-tone denim jacket belonging to John Lennon went for Ł9,200 and the Union Jack dress worn by Spice Girl Ginger Spice sold for Ł41,320.
2001 DJ Otzi went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Hey Baby.'
2006 Bob Dylan was at No.1 on the US album chart with 'Modern Times.' Entering the U.S. charts at No.1, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's Desire, 30 years prior. At 65, Dylan became the oldest living musician to top the Billboard albums chart. The record also reached number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
2007 Kanye West went to No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Graduation.' 50 Cent was beaten by West in the stand-off to claim the best-selling album in the US. West's Graduation shifted 957,000 copies in its first week of sales while 50 Cent's album, Curtis, only sold 691,000. Before the albums went on sale 50 Cent vowed he would retire from making solo albums if he was outsold by West.
