| 79 | years ago | 1946 | Rinus Gerritsen, bass player and keyboardist for Golden Earring, is born. |
| 71 | years ago | 1954 | Pete Thomas, drummer for Elvis Costello and The Attractions, is born. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Robert Zimmerman legally changes his name to Bob Dylan. |
| 62 | years ago | 1963 | Whitney Houston is born in Newark, New Jersey. She grows up to become the first women in U. S. history to enter the album chart at #1 with her album Whitney. |
| 62 | years ago | 1963 | The BBC's rock & roll television show, Ready! Steady! Go! debuts. The first show features The Searchers, Jet Harris, Pat Boone, Billy Fury, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. |
| 61 | years ago | 1964 | Joan Baez and Bob Dylan share the stage together for the first time when they perform in a concert in Forest Hills, New York. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair) reaches #1 in Great Britain, and stays there for four weeks. |
| 58 | years ago | 1967 | While performing at the Sunberry Jazz and Blues Festival in England, Jerry Lee Lewis gets the crowd going in such a frenzy that festival officials halt his show and ask him to leave the stage. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Hot Fun in The Summertime by Sly and the Family Stone, and Easy to Be Hard (from the Broadway production Hair) are released. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Jethro Tull scores its only U. K. #1 album with their second release, Stand Up. |
| 53 | years ago | 1972 | Gilbert O'Sullivan receives a gold record for Alone Again Naturally. It's #1 for six weeks in the summer. |
| 51 | years ago | 1974 | Bill Chase and three members of his band are killed in a plane crash in Jackson, Minnesota. They'd had a hit with Get It On in 1971. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is the site of the first annual Rock Music Award Show. The Don Kirshner-produced broadcast on CBS proves to be an alternative to the Grammys. Those taking home awards: Bad Company, the Eagles, Roger Daltrey, Joan Baez, and Stevie Wonder. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | The Bee Gees start a two-week run at #1 on the U. S. singles chart with Jive Talkin', the group's second U. S. #1, it makes #5 in the U. K. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | Blues legend Muddy Waters performs at a White House picnic for President Jimmy Carter. |
| 45 | years ago | 1980 | AC/DC scores their first U. K. #1 album with Back In Black. Meanwhil, Abba has the #1 single there, The Winner Takes It All. It’s their eighth. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | Survivor's Eye of the Tiger, which is the theme song for the hit movie Rocky III, goes gold. |
| 39 | years ago | 1986 | Queen gives what would be their last-ever live performance when they appear at Knebworth Festival in England. |
| 34 | years ago | 1991 | The Fifth Dimension receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. |
| 34 | years ago | 1991 | Singer Rick James pleads innocent to charges he imprisoned, tortured, and sexually assaulted a woman in his California home. |
| 31 | years ago | 1994 | During an Oasis gig in England, Noel Gallagher is hit in the face by a man who had jumped on the stage. Noel refuses to carry on playing and a mob of 300 people attack the band's bus as they are leaving. |
| 30 | years ago | 1995 | Jerry Garcia, guitarist and leader of the Grateful Dead rock band, and a leading symbol of the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, dies of an apparent heart attack. He was 53. |
| 28 | years ago | 1997 | Elvis Week begins in Memphis as fans commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. |