Births
1932 Des O'Connor, UK singer, comedian, TV presenter, (1968 UK No.1 single 'I Pretend'. Plus seven other UK Top 40 singles). Toured the UK with Buddy Holly in 1958.
1939 William Lee Gordon, Oak Ridge Boys, (1981 US No.5 single 'Elvira').
1941 Long John Baldry, vocals, Bluesology and solo artist, (1967 UK No.1 single 'Let The Heartaches Begin'). Baldry died of a chest infection on 21st July 2005.
1945 Maggie Bell, singer, The Power, Stone The Crows & solo, (UK No.11 solo single 'Hold Me').
1945 Abe Tilmon, Detroit Emeralds, (1973 UK No.7 single 'Feel The Need In Me'). Died of a heart attack in 1982
1946 Cynthia Robinson, vocals, Sly and The Family Stone, (1971 US No.1 & 1972 UK No.15 single 'Family Affair').
1951 Chris Bell, guitarist, Big Star. Bell was killed in a car accident on 27/12/78.
1954 Felipe Rose, vocals, The Village People, (1978 US No.2 & 1979 UK No.1 single 'YMCA').
1959 Blixa Bargeld, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, (1996 UK No.36 single with PJ Harvey,' Henry Lee').
1960 Charlie Gillingham, keyboards, Counting Crows, (1994 UK No.28 single 'Mr Jones', 1996 US No.1 album 'Recovering The Satellites').
1963 Guy Chambers, singer, songwriter, producer, member of The Waterboys, World Party, The Lemon Trees. Worked with Robbie Williams from 1997 as co-songwriter and producer penning tracks including 'Angels', 'Rock DJ', 'Millennium' and 'Let Me Entertain You.'
1965 Greg Kriesel, bass, The Offspring, (1999 UK No.1 & US No. 59 single 'Pretty Fly, (For A White Guy'), 1999 US No.6 & UK No.10 album 'Americana').
1968 Raekwon, Wu-Tang Clan, (1997 US & UK No.1 album 'Wu-Tang Forever').
1974 Melanie Chisholm, Mel C, Sporty Spice, The Spice Girls, (1996 UK No.1 & 1997 US No.1 single 'Wannabe', solo, 2000 UK No.1 single, 'Never Be The Same Again').
Deaths
1983 Former Traffic percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah died from a brain haemorrhage in Stockholm.
2003 Maurice Gibb from the Bee Gee's died in Miami Hospital in Florida following a heart attack during abdominal surgery aged 53.
2004 Singer, songwriter Randy VanWarmer died from leukaemia, (1979 US No.4 & UK No.8 single 'Just When I Needed You Most').
Events
1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found the Motown record empire.
1963 Bob Dylan performed in a radio play for the BBC in London. The play was called, "The Madhouse of Castle Street" and he played a folk singer.
1963 Steve Lawrence started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Go Away Little Girl'.
1964 The Beatles appeared on the ATV show Sunday Night At The London Palladium performing 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand', 'This Boy', 'All My Loving', 'Money' and 'Twist And Shout'. The compare for the evening was Bruce Forsyth. When The Beatles appeared on this show on October 13, 1963, their fee had been L250, now, just three months later, their fee was L1,000.
1965 "Hullabaloo" premiered on NBC TV.
1968 The Beatles Film Productions changed its name to Apple Film Limited and Apple Music Limited changed its name to Apple Corps Limited.
1968 The Supremes appeared in an episode of "Tarzan" on NBC-TV. The ladies played a group of nuns.
1974 Jim Croce started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim'.
1974 The Steve Miller Band were at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'The Joker', the groups first of three No.1's. It reached No.1 on the UK chart in 1990.
1975 The first night of a UK tour kicked off under the banner of The Warner Brothers Music Show. It featured Little Feat, Montrose, Tower Of Power, The Doobie Brothers and Graham Central Station. Also released was an album sampler featuring all the acts that was priced at 69p ($1.17).
1977 EMI Records issued a statement saying it felt unable to promote The *** Pistols records in view of the adverse publicity generated over the last two months.
1977 Rolling Stone Keith Richards was fined Ł750 ($1,275) for possession of cocaine found in his car after the guitarist had been involved in a car crash.
1977 The first night of an UK tour with Hall and Oates kicked off at The Odeon, Birmingham.
1977 The Police had their first rehearsal, held at drummer's Stewart Copeland's London flat, with Henri Padovani on guitar.
1977 In an English court, Keith Richards is fined 750 pounds for possession of cocaine in his wrecked car on May 19, 1976 and charged an additional 250 pounds for court costs. In the same court appearance, he is found not guilty of possession of LSD.
1980 'The Bee Gees Greatest Hits' album was at No.1 on the US charts.
1981 The Recording Industry Association of America donated Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde," KISS' "Alive!" and "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the *** Pistols" to the Library of Congress.
1984 Motley Crue opened its first U.S. tour at Madison Square Garden, New York.
1985 After a record 24 weeks as the #1 album in the nation, Prince slipped to the #2 spot with "Purple Rain". Replacing Prince at the top spot: 'The Boss' Bruce Springsteen's "Born In the USA".
1991 Johnny Paycheck was released from an Ohio prison after serving two years of a seven year sentence for a barroom shooting. Before leaving office, Gov. Richard Celeste commuted Paycheck's sentence.
1992 Bob Geldof was arrested after a disturbance on a Boeing 727, which had been grounded for 5 hours at Stansted Airport.
1993 Van Morrison failed to turn up at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction dinner, making him the first living inductee not to attend.
1995 Snoop Doggy Dogg was charged in Los Angeles with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
2000 Former Take That singer Gary Barlow married his long-time girlfriend Dawn Andrews on the Caribbean island of Nevis.
2000 Teenage diva Charlotte Church sacked her manager Jonathan Shalit. Shalit had won her a five album deal with Sony Records and helped the singer with her career - which had earn her L6 million ($10.2 million) to date.
2001 British Airways staff complained about Oasis singer Liam Gallagher after he had grabbed a stewardess' bottom, refused to stop smoking and thrown objects around the cabin during a flight from London to Rio De Janeiro.
2002 Hear'Say singer Kym Marsh walked out on the rest of the group after a bitter bust up. The band were the winners of the ITV reality TV show Popstars in February 2001. One of the band's former dancers, Johnny Shentall replaced Marsh until the band called it a day later that year.
2002 Aaliyah went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'More Than A Woman'.
2002 Adam Ant (Stuart Goddard) was arrested at the Prince of Wales club in London. He was charged with possession of a firearm and with criminal damage and assault. He also allegedly attacked a man in his 40s.
2005 Bob Marley's widow announced her plans to exhume his remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his "spiritual resting place" in Ethiopia.
2005 It was announced that the Strawberry Field children's home immortalised by The Beatles was to close. The home in Woolton, Liverpool was made famous when John Lennon wrote 'Strawberry Fields Forever' after playing there as a child.
2005 UK Pop band Busted split after three years and scoring eight UK top three singles.
2007 Toni Braxton filed a lawsuit at the U.S District Court in Manhattan against her former manager Barry Hankerson for $10 million, alleging "fraud, deception and double dealing." According to Braxton, Hankerson placed his own personal financial interests ahead of hers by using "double-talk" to compromise the relationship between Braxton and her former recording label, Arista Records.
2008 Mary J. Blige was at No.1 on the US album chart with her eighth album 'Growing Pains'.
