Births
1937 John Gorman, singer, The Scaffold, (1968 Christmas UK No.1 single 'Lily The Pink').
1942 John McLaughlin, guitarist, Mahavishnu Orchestra, (1973 UK No.7 album with Carlos Santana 'Love Devotion Surrender').
1955 Clive Gregson, singer, songwriter, and leader of late 70's Stiff Records band Any Trouble, one half of Gregson & Collister folk duo.
1956 Bernard Sumner, guitar, vocals, Warsaw, Joy Division, (1980 UK No.13 single 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'), New Order, (1983 UK No.9 single 'Blue Monday'), Electronic, (1991 UK No.8 single 'Get The Message'),
1958 Macel King, singer, Sweet Sensation, (1974 UK No.1 single 'Sad Sweet Dreamer').
1960 Michael Stipe, vocals, R.E.M. (1991 UK No.6 & US No.10 single 'Shiny Happy People' plus over 20 Top 40 UK singles. 1992 UK No.1 & US No.2 album 'Automatic For The People').
1962 Martin Mcaloon, bass, Prefab Sprout, (1988 UK No.7 single 'The King Of Rock 'N' Roll').
1962 Robin Guthrie, guitar, keyboards, programming, Cocteau Twins, (1984 UK No.29 single 'Pearly- dewdrops' Drops').
1965 Beth Gibbons, vocals, Portishead, (1995 UK No.13 single 'Glory Box').
1965 Cait O'Riordan, bass, The Pogues, (1987 UK No.8 single 'The Irish Rover').
1965 David Glasper, Breathe, (1988 US No.2 & UK No.4 single 'Hands To Heaven').
1967 Ben Darvill, harmonica, Crash Test Dummies, (1994 UK No.2 & US No.4 single 'MMM MMM MMM MMM').
1977 Timothy Wheeler, guitar, vocals, Ash, (1995 UK No.11 single 'Girl From Mars').
Deaths
1970 Chauffeur Neil Boland was accidentally killed when The Who's drummer Keith Moon ran over him. Moon was trying to escape from a Gang of skinheads after a fight broke out at a pub in Hatfield, England. Moon had never passed his driving test.
1976 Mal Evans was shot to death by police at his Los Angeles apartment. Evans alledgedly pointed a loaded rifle at officers causing them to fire upon him. Evans was a former roadie and bodyguard of the Beatles.
1986 Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy died of heart failure and pneumonia after being in a coma for eight days following a drug overdose.
Events
1932 NBC Red debuted "The Carnation Contented Hour". The show was as a showcase for top singers and musicians.
1935 Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra recorded "Hors d'oeuvres."
1936 The first pop music chart based on national sales was published by "Billboard" magazine.
1950 RCA Victor announced that it would manufacture long-playing (LP) records.
1954 Elvis Presley made his second visit to the Memphis recording service and cut two songs onto a 10 acetate, 'Casual Love Affair 'and 'I'll Never Stand In Your Way'. Studio boss Sam Phillips asked Presley to leave his phone number.
1957 Boxer Joe Louis appeared on "The Steve Allen Show" to introduce singer Solomon Burke.
1957 Elvis Presley had his pre-induction medical check up at Kennedy Veterans Hospital, a preliminary to his call up from the US Army.
1960 Marty Robbins started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'El Paso'. A No.19 in the UK.
1962 Liverpool's Mersey Beat published its first popularity poll, with The Beatles coming in first place and Gerry and the Pacemakers voted second.
1962 Gene McDaniels recorded "Point of No Return".
1964 Bobby Vinton started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'There I've Said It Again', a No.34 hit on the UK chart.
1965 The Fender guitar company was bought by CBS for $13 million (L7.6 million).
1965 Leo Fender sold the Fender Guitar Company to CBS for $13 million.
1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience played the first of what would be over 240 gigs in this year when they appeared at the Bromel Club, Bromley. (Many of the concerts were two shows per night).
1968 The University of California, Los Angeles announced that students taking music degrees would have to study the music of The Rolling Stones saying they had made such an important contribution to modern music.
1969 UK music weekly Disc and Music Echo reported that The Beatles were to release five new albums. One would be their first ever live album plus four separate LP's, each one the choice of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr.
1970 The Beatles (without John Lennon) re-record vocals and a new guitar solo on the Paul McCartney song 'Let It Be' at Studio Two, EMI Studios, London. This session will be the final studio appearance for The Beatles, as a group. (The final date that all four of The Beatles were in the studio together is August 20, 1969).
1971 The film "Performance" starring Mick Jagger debuted in London.
1973 The Allman Brothers name Lamar Williams as the replacement for the late Berry Oakley. The announcment was in Rolling Stone magazine.
1975 Elton John started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with his version of The Beatles 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'. His third US No.1, the song featured John Lennon on guitar.
1976 Appearing at The Cardiff Capitol, England, Procol Harum.
1977 The *** Pistols shocked passengers and airline staff at Heathrow Airport when they spat and vomited boarding a plane to Amsterdam.
1978 Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green married Jane Samuel in Los Angeles.
1981 The Boomtown Rats kicked off a UK tour at The Gaumount Theatre in Southampton.
1992 Simply Red went back to No.1 on the UK album chart for a five week run with 'Stars' making it the third time it had been at the top of the charts.
1993 Paul Simon became a father when his wife Edie Brickell gave birth to a son.
2001 Courtney Love filed a lawsuit against her alleged stalker claiming that Lesley Barber, the ex-wife of her current boyfriend Jim Barber, drove over her foot. This had forced her to forfeit her role in a forthcoming film and lost her the L200,000, ($340,000) fee that went with it.
2001 Madame Tussaud's waxworks in London revealed that Oasis singer Liam Gallagher had come third in 'The Most Hated Characters' list of exhibits, behind Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic.
2001 US rapper Vanilla Ice spent the night in jail after allegedly ripping out some of his wife's hair. Ice (born Robert Van Winkle) told police he pulled out some of his wife's hair to prevent her from jumping out of their truck's window. He was released the following morning from Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale on $3,500 bail.
2004 Britney Spears had her surprise marriage annulled less than 55 hours after tying the knot at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas with childhood friend Jason Alexander. They couple married on Saturday morning, during a night out in Las Vegas, but immediately her lawyers filed for an annulment, saying Spears 'lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.'
2004 Will Young had the UK No.1 album with 'Friday's Child'.
2005 The owner of a recording studio where Eminem recorded his 'Slim Shady' LP was found shot dead. AJ Abdallah, who was 36, was discovered by a business colleague at the Detroit studio, it was thought he had been dead for at least two days. Police suggested that a robbery may also have taken place. Mr Abdallah had lived in a apartment above the studio on Eight Mile Road, the Detroit street which inspired the title of Eminem's 2002 film '8 Mile.'
2006 The house where Johnny Cash lived for 35 years was bought by Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb. The rustic house near Nashville, Tennessee went on the market in June 2005 with an asking price of $2.9m (L1.7m). Gibb said he planned to preserve the house to honour the Cash memory.
2007 Nikki Bacharach the daughter of songwriter Burt Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson committed suicide by suffocation using a plastic bag and helium. She had suffered from Asperger's disorder. 40 year old Nickki who was the couple's only child died at her home in California.
2008 Beyonce won a long-running legal wrangle over claims her hit song 'Baby Boy' infringed the copyright of another artist's work. The appeals court in Houston, Texas upheld a 2006 decision which dismissed musician Jennifer Armour's claims that its lyrics were based on her work. Ms Armour claimed she had posted 'I Got A Little Bit Of Love For You' to Beyonce's manager and record company in early 2003.
2008 Britney Spears was carried out of her home on a stretcher and taken into custody after police were called in a dispute involving her children. Police were called to Spears' home over a family custodial dispute that they tried to resolve, after nearly three hours, Spears handed over her children, two-year-old Sean Preston and one-year-old Jayden James, to her ex-husband Kevin Federline.
