| 82 | years ago | 1944 | Michelle Phillips of the The Mamas and the Papas is born. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Paramount Pictures signs Elvis Presley to a three-picture deal only five days after he makes his first screen test in Hollywood. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Elvis Presley's All Shook Up is released. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Steve Miller, on tour in England, writes an article for Billboard decrying the British rock scene as “more an industry than a scene...It's at a low, lifeless point...The only good bands I've seen are Traffic, Marmalade, and Procol Harum. I've seen bands doing queer bits in their underwear to get attention.” |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Apple Corps Ltd., The Beatles' new record company and management and publishing firm, opens offices at 95 Wigmore Street, London. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Pink Floyd announces founder Syd Barrett has officially left the group. He is suffering from psychiatric disorders compounded by drug use. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Ike and Tina Turner, Procol Harum, John Mayall, and others appear at the first, and last, Palm Springs Pop Festival and San Andreas Boogie in Palm Springs, California. The festival site holds 15,000 people, but 25,000 show up, which means more force needed to disperse the crowd and the rioting. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Markku Lappalainen of Hoobastank is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones opens at New York City's Ziegfeld Theatre. The premiere is turned into an event: a 40-foot height Rolling Stone winged tongue that rises into the air, 2,000 white doves are released, and a 65-foot long dragon is flown in from San Francisco. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | The California Jam rock festival pulls in 200,000 people to see such acts as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Black Oak Arkansas, and The Eagles. The event runs with no problems; in fact, it begins 15 minutes early. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | The punk/new wave group Blondie has its first big hit in the U.S. with Heart of Glass. The tune goes platinum on this date, two months after it hit #1. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | Rod Stewart marries actor George Hamilton's ex-wife Alana Hamilton in Beverly Hills. |
| 41 | years ago | 1985 | Miami Steve Van Zandt announces that he's leaving the E Street Band. Springsteen hires guitarist Nils Lofgren as the replacement. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee suffers a mild concussion in New Haven, CT. when he falls after swinging from a scaffolding above an elevated drum kit. |
| 27 | years ago | 1999 | Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President and presidential candidate Al Gore, sits in on conga drums with former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart during a fundraiser for her husband's presidential campaign in San Jose, California. They play Queen Jane. |
| 26 | years ago | 2000 | An all-star tribute to Joni Mitchell is held in New York featuring performances by Shawn Colvin, James Taylor, Cyndi Lauper, Richard Thompson, Sweet Honey, Elton John, Cassandra Wilson, Wynona Judd, k.d. lang, Bryan Adams, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. The special is airs on TNT 10 days later. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Veteran rocker Rod Stewart is officially divorced from supermodel Rachel Hunter - seven years after they split. The New Zealand beauty, 36, left the singer, 61, in January 1999, after eight years of marriage. They have two children together, Renee, 13, and Liam, 11. After battling over a legal settlement for years, Hunter and Stewart's divorce is finalized today - much to the delight of Stewart's fiancee Penny Lancaster, who gave birth to a son with Stewart last November. |