| 77 | years ago | 1949 | Blues singer and musician Marcia Ball is born. |
| 76 | years ago | 1950 | Drummer Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer is born. |
| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist Jimmy Vaughn is born. |
| 65 | years ago | 1961 | Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom is born. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | British Invasion band Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders enter the Hot 100 for the first time with Game of Love. It stays on the charts for eleven weeks, making it to #1 in April. Also on this date, Petula Clark's I Know a Place enters the Hot 100. It hangs around for 12 weeks eventually hitting #3. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Eric Clapton and three members of the Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Richie Furay and Jim Mesina, are arrested in Los Angeles for “being at a place where it is suspected marijuana is being used.” It's a misdemeanor for which Clapton will later be found innocent, the others paying small fines. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | John Lennon and Yoko Ono are married in Gibraltar. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | David Bowie marries American-born model Angela Barnett in Bromley, England. She met him at a press reception for King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King in London in 1969. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | As of today, Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida has been on the charts for 138 weeks and sold more than 3 million copies. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | Don McLean records American Pie, essentially live in the studio in one take. |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | The Allman Brothers Band jams at The Warehouse on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Ringo Starr releases the second of his seven Top Ten singles, Back Off, Boogaloo, produced by George Harrison. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Boz Scaggs' biggest album of his career, Silk Degrees premieres on the charts. It's his seventh solo album but it will be the first to go platinum. Off the album is the #3 pop and #5 R&B smash single Lowdown. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Bad Company's Young Blood is released. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | Chester Bennington of Linkin Park is born. |
| 46 | years ago | 1980 | Joseph Riveria, a 28-year-old truck driver from Texas, walks into the New York offices of Elektra/Asylum Records, draws a gun and takes the office manager hostage. He demands to see either Jackson Browne or The Eagles, from whom he wants money to finance his trucking operation. Eventually, Riviera surrenders to police without hurting anybody. |
| 36 | years ago | 1990 | Gloria Estefan breaks several bones in her back when her tour bus is involved in an accident. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | Eric Clapton's 4-year-old son, Conor, falls to his death from a 53rd story New York City apartment window. The tragedy inspires Clapton's song Tears in Heaven. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | Michael Jackson signs the richest deal in recording history when Sony inks him to a $1 billion contract. |
| 18 | years ago | 2008 | Al Jardine and Mike Love of the Beach Boys settle a five-year dispute over use of the band's name. |
| 17 | years ago | 2009 | Metallica rocks the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. |
| 11 | years ago | 2015 | Twisted Sister drummer A.J. Pero dies in his sleep on the Adrenaline Mob tour bus at the age of 55.
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| 8 | years ago | 2018 | More than 20 years after bandmate Paul McCartney received the honor, Ringo Star is knighted. Fans can now call the former Beatles drummer Sir Ringo, or Sir Richard to be precise. The 77-year-old Ringo Starr receives his long-awaited knighthood from Prince William.He uses his real name Richard Starkey for the big event. |
| 6 | years ago | 2020 | Kenny Rogers, a screen and music superstar from the late 60's and well beyond, dies of natural causes at age 81. |