| 75 years ago (1942) | Mick Fleetwood, Fleetwood Mac's drummer and co-founder, is born. |
| 73 years ago (1944) | Born today are Jeff Beck and Arthur Brown (of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown). |
| 68 years ago (1949) | Dire Straits bassist John Illsley is born. |
| 56 years ago (1961) | Tears For Fears singer/keyboardist Curt Smith is born. |
| 53 years ago (1964) | Sam Cooke starts a two week stay at New York's Copacabana Club. A 70-foot billboard announcing the engagement is erected in Times Square. |
| 52 years ago (1965) | John Lennon's second book, A Spaniard in the Works is published. |
| 50 years ago (1967) | Procol Harum's first single, A Whiter Shade of Pale enters the U.S. pop charts where it will peak at #5. |
| 46 years ago (1971) | The Celebration Of Life Festival is shut down by authorities after promoters fail to provide sufficient supplies of food, medical and sanitary facilities. Only eight of the advertised twenty-seven groups appeared and 150 of the festival goers were arrested. |
| 44 years ago (1973) | Al Kooper reunites with the original Blues Project for a concert in New York's Central Park. |
| 43 years ago (1974) | The Hues Corporation has a gold record with Rock The Boat. It would reach #1 in July. |
| 42 years ago (1975) | The U.S. Attorney in Newark, New Jersey hands down indictments to 19 music industry executives in a two year investigation. Counts of income tax evasion and payola are leveled. Among those named include: Clive Davis, former president of Columbia Records and Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, architects of the Philadelphia sound of the 70's. |
| 27 years ago (1990) | Keyboardist Roger O'Donnell quits The Cure. He is replaced by Perry Bamonte, who was a roadie for the band. |
| 22 years ago (1995) | Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder left the stage after seven songs during a concert in San Francisco because of a stomach flu. Neil Young finished the show. |
| 18 years ago (1999) | Eric Clapton puts 100 of his guitars up for auction in New York at Christie's to raise money for his drug rehab clinic, the Crossroads Centre in Antigua. His 1956 Fender Stratocaster, named Brownie, was sold for a record $497,500. The guitar was used to record Layla. The auction helped raise nearly $5 million for the clinic. |
| 13 years ago (2004) | 33-year-old rapper DMX is arrested in New York for allegedly impersonating an FBI agent and trying to steal a car from the parking lot at JFK airport. He had reportedly crashed his own SUV through a gate after demanding the lot attendant let him leave because he was a government agent. DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, allegedly tried to pull the driver out of another vehicle so he could commandeer it while identifying himself as an FBI agent. Police found a billy club and crack cocaine in Simmons' car. They also charged him with criminal mischief, impersonation, menacing, driving under the influence, and other offenses worth up to seven years of prison time if convicted. |
| 11 years ago (2006) | The oldest Backstreet Boy, Kevin Richardson, calls it quits. He's 33. Nevertheless, the group returns to the studio the same weekend to work on an album for release later this year. |