| 102 | years ago | 1924 | Bluegrass performer Earl Scruggs is born. |
| 80 | years ago | 1946 | Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, is born. He is ousted from Pink Floyd in 1968 after David Gilmour takes over as their new guitarist, and is briefly hospitalized amid speculation of mental illness and his excessive use of psychedelic drugs. |
| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Kim Wilson, of Fabulous Thunderbirds, is born. |
| 73 | years ago | 1953 | Malcolm Young, guitarist with AC/DC, is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Elvis Presley makes his last appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York City. Over twenty minutes are devoted to him and he sings seven numbers--Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, Heartbreak Hotel, Peace in the Valley, Too Much, and When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Rolling Stones begin their first headlining British tour in Harrow. The Ronettes are the opening act. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Two days before it begins a three-week reign in the #1 spot, The Beatles' We Can Work It Out is awarded a gold record. It had entered the chart on December 18, 1965 and will stay on the Hot 100 for 12 weeks. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Television producer and American Bandstand host Dick Clark premieres his latest TV series, Happening '68. The prime-time show, featuring popular rock acts runs through September 1969. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Gibson patents its Flying V electric guitar. The design will become a favorite of many rock guitarists and the trademark instrument of bluesman Albert King. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Neil Young returns to his homeland of Canada for his first concert there since his pre-stardom days. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | The one thousand or so Led Zeppelin fans, waiting overnight inside the lobby of the Boston Garden for tickets to the group's February 4th gig to go on sale, cause an estimated $30,000 damage to the joint when they riot, breaking seats and doors. Boston Mayor Kevin White promptly cancels the show. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Three months after signing the Sex Pistols for 40,000 pounds, EMI terminates the contract after releasing only one single. No reason is given, but an EMI office memo alludes to the group's “disgraceful...aggressive behavior” and EMI's responsibility to “encourage restraint.” |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | In the latest string of never-ending legal problems for embattled pop star Michael Jackson, a lawsuit is filed in Santa Maria by a veterinarian seeking money for unpaid bills. Martin Dinnes, owner of Dinnes Memorial Veterinary Hospital, had been caring for the exotic animals at Jackson's Neverland Ranch and according to the suit had also helped the pop star acquire them. Since he was acquitted of child molestation charges last year, Jackson has been living in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain. The suit alleges that Jackson owes Dinnes $91,602 in unpaid veterinary bills. His lawyer, Brenton Horner, says Dinnes continues to treat the assortment of animals, including flamingos, giraffes, elephants and orangutans, regularly. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | A Los Angeles mortgage company owns the historic Seattle bungalow Courtney Love bought in the 1990s, after an auction generated no bids. WMC Mortgage filed a lawsuit last year seeking foreclosure after Love stopped paying the bills. The debt on the house totalled $386,000, which includes court costs, sheriff's fees and interest. Love could have prevented the auction by paying off the debt. The widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain bought the property in 1997 for Cobain's family. |
| 7 | years ago | 2019 | Alan R. Pearlman dies at age 93. After having designed amplifiers for NASA, Alan founded ARP Instruments in 1969, naming the company after his initials. His early synthesizers were played by such luminaries as Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Stevie Wonder, created the sounds of R2-D2 in Star Wars and provided the music used in the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. |