| 99 | years ago | 1927 | Former Tonight Show bandleader and Endymion Grand Marshal Doc Severinson is born. |
| 86 | years ago | 1940 | Ringo Starr, drummer for The Beatles, is born. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | Memphis D.J. Dewey Phillips of WHBQ becomes the first D.J. to play an Elvis Presley record. He premiersThat's All Right Mama and also interviews Elvis. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | Two versions of Sh-Boom hit the top-10. The original version by the Chords is at #9 and the cover version by The Crew Cuts is at #5. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | The Platters' My Prayer is released. |
| 64 | years ago | 1962 | Mark White of the Spin Doctors is born. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Problems for The Lovin' Spoonful: Steve Boone and Zal Yanofsky are busted for drug use. The two implicate some of San Francisco's best-connected drug suppliers. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Three years after Eric Clapton departed the Yardbirds and eight months after Jeff Beck left the group, the Yardbirds disband. Guitarist Jimmy Page fulfills their concert obligations and calls his group The New Yardbirds. Keith Moon says, “...it'll probably go over like a lead zeppelin.” So Page changed the name of his group to Led Zeppelin. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die is released. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Keith Richards is charged with possession of an offensive weapon and reckless driving in Arkansas. Hundreds of teenage girls storm the jail where he is being held. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | The original lineup of Led Zeppelin gives its final show. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | The Who performs at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. |
| 42 | years ago | 1984 | Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood becomes the biggest selling single of all time in Britain. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Rod Stewart's jet makes a forced emergency landing after a mid-air collision with a bird. Aviation officials call the incident “undramatic,” but Stewart is visibly shaken and says, “I almost crashed.” |
| 22 | years ago | 2004 | Justin Timberlake seeks a restraining order against photographer Artemus Earl Lister in a California court. It is granted a few weeks later. Timberlake is also involved in a lawsuit he recently filed against the British tabloid, News of the World. He says they erroneously reported that he cheated on his girlfriend, actress Cameron Diaz, with model Lucy Clarkson. Diaz says she and Justin are happy and together. They break up two and a half years later. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Syd Barrett. a founding and later ousted member of Pink Floyd, dies at his home in Cambridge, England of pancreatic cancer. |