| 86 | years ago | 1939 | Grace Slick, vocalist for Jefferson Airplane, is born. |
| 78 | years ago | 1947 | Jim Messina, guitarist and vocalist for Poco, and Eagles' bassist Timothy B. Schmidt are born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Phil Spector's Philles label, destined to become one of the most successful and influential labels of the sixties, releases its first record, the Crystals' Oh, Yeah, Maybe Baby. It's backed by There's No Other. The latter will reach #20 on the pop chart and will sell over a million copies. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | Roy Orbison's Oh! Pretty Woman becomes a gold record. His ninth and last Top Ten single, the song entered the Hot 100 on August 29th. The song stays on the charts for 15 weeks. |
| 60 | years ago | 1965 | The Supremes' I Hear a Symphony enters the Hot 100, where in ten weeks on the chart it will become the Motown girl group's sixth #1 record of their last seven releases. It would be their last #1 hit until You Can't Hurry Love in August 1966. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Brian Jones, in a London Magistrate's Court on drug possession charges from his March arrest, pleads guilty to possessing cannabis and not guilty of possessing cocaine and methedrine. He's remanded to Wormwood Scrub Prison until sentencing the following day. He gets nine months behind bars and is released on bail pending an appeal. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Gavin Rossdale, lead singer of Bush, is born. |
| 55 | years ago | 1970 | Jim Morrison is sentenced to six months in jail and fined $500 for exposing himself in Miami. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | John Lennon's Imagine hits #1. It's the ex-Beatle's only solo LP to sell a million copies and his most popular album until Double Fantasy. Double Fantasy becomes #1 shortly after his assassination on December 8, 1980. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Elton John gives a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, making him the first rock & roller to be asked to appear in a royal variety performance since The Beatles in November 1963. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | John Lennon releases the Mind Games album and the title track as a single. Both become his most popular records in quite some time. The album reaches #9, the single #18. The same day, Ringo Starr's Ringo is released. |
| 51 | years ago | 1974 | Less than six months after her marriage to Sylvester Stewart in Madison Square Garden, Kathy Silva Stewart files for divorce and is awarded custody of their 14-month old son, Sylvester Bubb Ali Stewart. The boy and his father (the leader of Sly and the Family Stone) are missing and believed to be in hiding. |
| 51 | years ago | 1974 | Steve Winwood leaves Traffic during a U.S. tour. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | The made-for-TV movie, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, starring heavy-metal, glitter rockers KISS as the heroes trying to foil a mad scientist working in an amusement park, airs on NBC. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Singer Paul Weller announces the breakup of the band, The Jam. |
| 41 | years ago | 1984 | Linda Ronstadt makes her operatic debut in La Boheme in New York. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | The Beastie Boys release their License To Ill LP. It becomes the first rap album to go to #1. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | David Bowie, Tom Donahue, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Jefferson Airplane, Little Willie John, Pink Floyd, Pete Seeger, The Shirelles and The Velvet Underground are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. |
| 28 | years ago | 1997 | R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry announces his retirement from the band. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | Bryan Adams shoots the video to When You're Gone with Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls in New York. She sang back-up on the song. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | KISS guest on an episode of Fox's Millenium. The band appears both with and without make-up. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | David Bowie hosts a songwriting contest on his web site to help complete the lyrics to his song What's Really Happening. 20 year-old Alex Grant is the winner of the contest, and is later present for the song's recording session. |
| 16 | years ago | 2009 | The three-day Voodoo Fest opens in New Orleans' City Park to run through Halloween and All Saints Day. Perfomers include Lenny Kravitz, Kiss, Eminem, the reunited Jane's Addiction, and Widespread Panic. |
| 14 | years ago | 2011 | It's a wrap for Voodoo Fest in New Orleans' City Park. Performers for the three-day event included Soundgarden, Blink-182, Snoop Dogg, My Chemical Romance, Band of Horses, and more. |