| 77 | years ago | 1948 | Greg Lake, bassist and vocalist with Emerson, Lake & Palmer and King Crimson, is born. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | A Billboard article notes Dick Clark's “phenomenal” rapport with his teenage audience and advertisers see him as “one of the hottest merchandising and promotional properties” on the tube. The article points out that Beechnut gum's sales have gone up 100 percent since becoming an American Bandstand sponsor. |
| 67 | years ago | 1958 | Sam Cooke suffers minor eye injuries in an auto accident near Marion, Arkansas, which takes the life of his driver, Edward Cunningham and also injures singer Lou Rawls. |
| 65 | years ago | 1960 | Gregg Allman gets a guitar for his 13th birthday. He and his 14-year-old brother Duane will learn to play the instrument by listening to blues records and in a year will form their first group, the Kings. Other groups include the Allman Joys and Hourglass before the Allman Brothers Band is put together in 1969. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | The two-night, 9pm-to-9am Paris Love-In begins in Paris, France, featuring concerts by the Spencer Davis Group, Soft Machine, Dandelion's Chariot, Keith West and Tomorrow, and other European bands. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | The Moody Blues release Nights in White Satin. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Led Zeppelin II is certified gold. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | David Essex's Rock On is released. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World is born. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | The Clash's second album Give 'Em Enough Rope, is released in England on CBS Records. It will soon be their first U.S. album release on Epic Records. |
| 46 | years ago | 1979 | “The Genius,” Ray Charles enters the soul singles chart for only the second time this year with Just Because, which will peak at #69 in five weeks on the chart. His only other entry will be with the LP Ain't it So, which enters the soul LP charts in two weeks and peaks at #59. |
| 46 | years ago | 1979 | Chris Jannou of Silverchair is born. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | Bruce Springsteen's Live 1975-1985 box set hits stores. |
| 38 | years ago | 1987 | Fleetwood Mac, now comprised of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Billy Burnette, and Rick Vito, plays the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans on its Tango in the Night Tour. |
| 33 | years ago | 1992 | A St. Louis judge finds Guns 'n' Roses lead singer Axl Rose guilty of assault and property damage in connection with a riot at a 1991 concert at St. Louis' Riverport Amphitheatre. Rose's sentence is suspended and he is put on probation. Rose was also ordered to pay $10,000 each to five charities. |
| 27 | years ago | 1998 | Bruce Springsteen releases Tracks, a 56-song box set featuring demos, unreleased recordings, and outtakes from Springsteen's previous albums. The set debuts at #27 on the Billboard album chart. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Courtney Love pleads not guilty in Los Angeles to a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon during a confrontation with a woman at her ex-boyfriend’s house back in April. The “deadly” weapon was either a liquor bottle, which she allegedly threw at the woamn she found sleeping on the sofa, or the flashlight with which she chased the woman. Courtney stays free on $150,000 bail. A month earlier and a continent away, she pleaded guilty in Manhatten to disorderly conduct for hitting a club owner on the head with a mike stand. |
| 21 | years ago | 2004 | Green Day's American Idiot album, released two months earlier, is certified platinum. |