| 117 | years ago | 1909 | Leo Fender, inventor of the electric guitar, is born. |
| 98 | years ago | 1928 | Jimmy Dean, singer and sausage peddler, is born. |
| 86 | years ago | 1940 | Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield is born. |
| 79 | years ago | 1947 | Ian Anderson, flautist and singer for Jethro Tull, is born, as is Ronettes lead singer Ronnie Spector. |
| 72 | years ago | 1954 | Elvis Presley makes one of his first professional appearances at Overton Park in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. He uses the occasion to debut his new record, That's All Right (Mama). |
| 71 | years ago | 1955 | Two weeks after its R&B top ten debut, Chuck Berry's Maybellene enters the pop charts at #23. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | The male members of the Platters, Tony Williams, David Lynch, Alex Hodge, and Paul Rabi are arrested in a room at the Sheraton Gibston Hotel in Cincinnati. Detectives were tipped off by a hotel employee and found the four black men in various stages of undress with four nineteen-year-old women--three of whom were white. The men are charged with aiding and abetting prostitution, lewdness, and assignation. Everybody will be acquitted in December, but many think the episode is fueled by race. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Mark Price, drummer with All About Eve, The Cure, and Right Said Fred is born. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | INXS drummer Jon Farriss is born. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | 13-year-old Little Stevie Wonder starts a three-week run at #1 on the U. S. singles chart with Fingertips Part II, making him the youngest singer to top the charts. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | Mick Jagger is fined £32 in Liverpool for driving without insurance and breaking the speed limit. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Tom Jones' Delilah hits #1 in Great Britain, while Cream starts a four-week run at #1 on the U. S. album chart with Wheels of Fire. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Who's Magic Bus is released. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Keith Richards girlfriend gives birth to a son, Marlon. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Jim Morrison's trial for allegedly exposing himself onstage in Miami begins. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Former Beatle John Lennon releases the Imagine album. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Paul & Linda McCartney are arrested for drug possession after a concert in Gothenburg Sweden. Paul is fined $1,000 and Linda $200. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | After doing two albums for Elektra/Asylum Records, Bob Dylan returns to his longtime label, Columbia. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Roberta Flack hits #1 on the singles chart with Feel Like Makin' Love. It’s her third #1. Meanwhile, John Denver hits #1 on the album chart with Back Home Again. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Gladys Knight gives birth to son Shanga-Ali. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Elton John gets Madison Square Garden rockin' and rollin' on the opening night of a seven-show stand. The stay breaks the house record set the previous summer by the Rolling Stones. The concert marks the end of a two-month U.S. tour for John and represents the absolute peak of his staggering popularity. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Southside Johnny Lyon, leader of the Asbury Jukes, marries Jill Glasner in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Jukes and Bruce Springsteen perform at the wedding. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | Michael Jackson pays $47.5 million for the ATV music catalog, which includes 251 Lennon/McCartney songs. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran is air lifted to safety when his boat Drum overturns while racing off the English coast. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | Money for Nothing by Dire Straits peaks at #4 on the U. K. singles chart, Bryan Adams scores his first #1 album with Reckless, and Madonna's album Like a Virgin becomes the first solo album by a female artist to be certified for sales of five million copies. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Wilson Pickett is found guilty by a New Jersey court of possessing a shot gun with intent to endanger life following his involvement in a fist fight in a bar. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Jimmy Buffett leads a celebration for President Clinton's birthday at the White House. |
| 29 | years ago | 1997 | Puff Daddy and the Family hit #1 on the album chart with No Way Out. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Mick Jagger tells the television show Extra that the song Sweet Neo Con on The Rolling Stones’ upcoming album A Bigger Bang “is not really named at anyone. It’s not aimed, personally aimed, at President Bush. It wouldn't be called Sweet Neo Con if it was. It is certainly very critical of certain policies of the administration, but so what? Lot’s of people are critical.” |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | A trustee accused of misappropriating $350,000 of the late James Brown’s money resigns and hands over a check for that amount during a court hearing. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Rapper 50 Cent says he won't put out any more solo albums if his album Curtis, scheduled for release on September 11, doesn't outsell the new one from Kanye West, Graduation, also due for release the same day. Kanye's album out sells 50 Cent's, 957,000 to 691,000 in the first six days of sales. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | Spice Girl Emma Bunton, “Baby Spice,” gives birth to a son Beau in London. The dad is boyfriend Jade Jones. |
| 18 | years ago | 2008 | Isacc Hayes dies of an apparent stroke at age 65. |