| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Rocker John Mellencamp is born. |
| 73 | years ago | 1953 | Tico Torres of Bon Jovi is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | RCA Victor has all ready received a half-million advance orders for Elvis Presley's Christmas album. So far only 200,000 copies have been pressed. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Beatles appear on an episode of Shindig! taped on location in London. They perform I'm a Loser, Kansas City, and Boys. |
| 60 | years ago | 1966 | Early British rocker Johnny Kidd is killed in a car accident in Lancashire, England. He led the Pirates, the first truly raunchy band in British rock history. Their big hit was 1960's Shakin' All Over. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | Cass Elliot of The Mama's & The Papa's spends the night in a London jail after a dispute over a hotel bill. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Beatles reject an offer of $1 million to play Shea Stadium from promoter Sid Bernstein. He orginally brought the group to Shea in August, 1965. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Thom York of Radiohead is born. |
| 52 | years ago | 1974 | French pop singer Veronique Sanson plays her first show in Paris and among those in her back-up band is her husband, Stephen Stills, on bass. When asked if they might become the next Sonny & Cher, Stills says, “Good God, no!” |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | John Lennon wins his lengthy fight to stay in the U.S. when the three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals in New York rules that his 1968 arrest in Britain for possession of marijuana was contrary to U.S. ideas of due process and is invalid as a means of banishing the former Beatle from America. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | RCA releases David Bowie's Heroes, his second album recorded in Berlin and produced by Brian Eno. |
| 49 | years ago | 1977 | Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett leaves the group for a solo career. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Toto's Hold The Line is released. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | The Rolling Stones perform Beast Of Burden, Respectable, and Beast Of Burden on Saturday Night Live. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Boston's Don't Look Back peaks at #4 on the singles chart while Bob Seger's Hollywood Nights peaks at #12. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Dusty Springfield makes her first New York onstage appearance in eight years at the Grand Finale club. |
| 44 | years ago | 1982 | Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page receives a 12-month conditional discharge after being found guilty of cocaine possession. |
| 40 | years ago | 1986 | Run D.M.C. performs and speaks to 4,000 schoolchildren at an anti-crack rally in New York City. |
| 37 | years ago | 1989 | Jefferson Airplane plays a concert where admission is a can of food for the San Francisco Food Bank. |
| 32 | years ago | 1994 | Naughty By Nature's Treach makes his big screen debut in Jason's Lyric. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | Rapper Tone Loc is arrested in Los Angeles for allegedly taking 80 dollars from a pizza parlor. He argued with the owner over a pizza and demanded his money back. He pleads no contest. |
| 31 | years ago | 1995 | David Bowie releases his Outside LP, an album that marks his reunion with Brian Eno. |
| 30 | years ago | 1996 | Bruce Springsteen sells out a solo acoustic show on his Ghost Of Tom Joad tour at Charlotte's Ovens Auditorium in eight minutes. |