| 83 | years ago | 1942 | Bing Crosby records the Christmas classic, White Christmas. It becomes the biggest selling single of all time. |
| 80 | years ago | 1945 | Gary Brooker, pianist for Procol Harum, is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1956 | LaToya Jackson is born. |
| 66 | years ago | 1959 | One of rock's first outdoor festivals takes place at the Herndon Stadium in Atlanta. The bill features Ray Charles, B.B. King, and Jimmy Reed among others. More than 9,000 show up. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge is born. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | Britain's Daily Mirror says of the Rolling Stones, “Everything seems to be against them on the surface. They are called the ugliest group in Britain. They are not looked on very kindly by most parents or adults in general. They are even used to the type of article that asks big brother if he would let his sister go out with one of them.” |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher is born. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Chan Kinchla of Blues Traveler is born. |
| 54 | years ago | 1971 | The Rolling Stones achieve the rare distinction of having both the #1 LP (Sticky Fingers) and #1 single (Brown Sugar) in the U.S. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Paul McCartney releases his version of the nursery rhyme, Mary Had A Little Lamb as a kind of tongue-in-cheek joke to get back at the BBC for banning his earlier single, Give Ireland Back To The Irish, which reached the U.S. Top-30. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Musicians Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley witness a concert by the New York Dolls at the Diplomat Hotel in New York City and decide to form a unique band which will be called KISS. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Columbia Records fires president Clive Davis for misappropriating $100,000 in funds. Davis went on to start Arista records. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Third Day guitarist Mark Lee is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Mike Oldfield releases his Tubular Bells LP. The title track becomes the theme for the movie The Exorcist. |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Roger McGuinn makes his solo debut at New York's Academy of Music just prior to the release of his first album. McGuinn also confirms rumors that the Byrds are history, unless he can convince the original members to reunite. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | Spice Girl Melanie Brown is born. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Elvis Presley walks off stage in the middle of a concert in Baltimore, Maryland -- the first time in his 23-year career he had done so except in the cases of illness. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Clash's Combat Rock LP is released. |
| 26 | years ago | 1999 | The skeleton of Philip Taylor Kramer, bassist for Iron Butterfly in the 70’s and now working in the computer industry, is found in an old car wreck at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California. He had disappeared on February 12, 1995 after failing to meet an investor at LAX Airport in Los Angeles. He instead makes a flurry of cell phone calls, including one to the police during which he says, “I’m going to kill myself.” He’s never heard from again. A massive search, many news reports, and talk show segments including an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, America's Most Wanted, The Unexplained, Unsolved Mysteries and others all yield nothing until the skeleton turns up during a photo shoot. |
| 17 | years ago | 2008 | Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice shares a Stockholm hotel with Kiss. She's there for a conference on Iraq, and they are there for a sold-out gig the next night. The band invites the classically-trained pianist and diplomat to stop by after her her dinner with the Swedish foreign minister, and she jumps at the chance. Her favorite Kiss tune is Rock and Roll All Night. |