| 79 years ago (1943) | Randy Newman is born. |
| 73 years ago (1949) | Paul Shaffer, band leader on CBS' The Late Show With David Letterman, is born. |
| 58 years ago (1964) | Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las hits #1 on the U.S. pop chart. |
| 56 years ago (1966) | Several gold records are certified this day. The Righteous Brothers get one for their album Soul and Inspiration. The Monkees earn their third gold record for I'm a Believer, which will be #1 for seven weeks. And a gold record goes to the New Vaudeville Band for their '20s-style novelty song, Winchester Cathedral. |
| 52 years ago (1970) | Marty Balin leaves Jefferson Airplane, a group he started in 1965, after being fed up with the whole drugs and groupies scene. |
| 52 years ago (1970) | George Harrison's My Sweet Lord and Elton John's Your Song are released. |
| 48 years ago (1974) | Elton John made John Lennon make a promise. If Lennon's Whatever Gets You thru the Night hit #1, Lennon would join Elton on stage for a Madison Square Garden appearance. Elton co-wrote the song with Lennon. The song did reach #1 on the chart and Lennon does joins him on stage for three tunes. Backstage, Lennon has a brief reunion with Yoko Ono, from whom he'd been separated for over a year. |
| 32 years ago (1990) | Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles decide there isn't enough evidence to prosecute singer Axl Rose for assault in connection with a dispute involving his neighbor. The neighbor claims that Rose hit her over the head with an empty wine bottle. |
| 16 years ago (2006) | After taping his appearance on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, rapper Snoop Dogg is arrested for investigation of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and drugs. He and two members of his entourage are taken into custody as they start to drive away from the NBC studios in Burbank. |