| 87 | years ago | 1938 | Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary, is born. |
| 85 | years ago | 1940 | Augie Meyers, keyboardist for the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados, is born. |
| 77 | years ago | 1948 | John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, is born. |
| 64 | years ago | 1961 | Chuck Berry opens Berry Park, an amusement park in Wentzville, Missouri. The 30-acre complex has a swimming pool, miniature golf course, Ferris wheel, a children's zoo, and a picnic grove with barbecue pits. |
| 63 | years ago | 1962 | Corey Hart is born. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends enters the album charts. The LP features guest appearances by Steve Winwood and Jimmy Page. |
| 56 | years ago | 1969 | Rolling Stone reports Frank Zappa has become a lecturer on the college circuit, speaking at NYC's New School, UCLA, Villanova, and the University of South Carolina. He is paid $1,500 for speaking on such subjects as “Pigs, Ponies, and Rock & Roll.” |
| 52 | years ago | 1973 | Steely Dan, an eclectic outfit fronted by keyboardist Donald Fagan and bass player Walter Becker, has a gold LP with Can't Buy a Thrill. It includes the hits Do It Again and Reeling in the Years. |
| 50 | years ago | 1975 | The Eagles release One Of These Nights. |
| 49 | years ago | 1976 | The Who headlines a bill at the Charlton Athletic Grounds in England and puts its name into the Guiness Book of World Records as the loudest rock band ever, when its set measures at 120 decibels. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, having recently finished recording their ambitious Works, Volume One, begin a tour of the U-S accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra. |
| 48 | years ago | 1977 | Scot Klopfenstein of Reel Big Fish is born. |
| 47 | years ago | 1978 | One of the biggest disco hits of the year is the Trammp's Disco Inferno. It climbs to #11 on the charts and on this date the groups album, Disco Inferno turns gold. |
| 46 | years ago | 1979 | The restored Radio City Music Hall is given a gala reopening. |
| 43 | years ago | 1982 | The Rolling Stones play an unannounced show at the 100 Club in London. It's where the Sex Pistols started the punk-rock movement about six years earlier. |
| 32 | years ago | 1993 | Jon Bon Jovi and his wife Dorthea become parents to Stephanie Rose. |
| 26 | years ago | 1999 | Songwriter and 1960s Detroit underground radio personality Dave Dixon is found dead in his Detroit home. He co-wrote I Dig Rock and Roll Music for Peter, Paul, and Mary. |
| 25 | years ago | 2000 | A near-reunion tour of The Guess Who's prolific line-up of Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Donnie McDougall, and Garry Peterson begins in Canada. Jim Kale bowed out of the tour to tend to family matters. |
| 20 | years ago | 2005 | Twenty years after the Live Aids concerts, Bob Geldorf announces a five-city spectacular scheduled for July 2, 2005 to push for a political solution to African poverty. “Live 8” will be held just days before the G8 summit in Britain. Madonna, Paul McCartney, U2, Bon Jovi, Brian Wilson, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Coldplay, Sting, Stevie Wonder, and Jay-Z sign up to play on stages in London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Paris, and Rome. |
| 20 | years ago | 2005 | While on trial in California for child molestation, Michael Jackson is ordered to show up in federal court in New Orleans in July unless he hires another Louisiana attorney to represent him. He is being sued by a man who says he just remembered that Michael kidnapped him from the 1984 World's Fair when he was 18. He claims he was lured into Jackson's limousine, then sexually assaulted, battered, and held prisoner for nine days. The New Orleans defense lawyers Jackson had hired had quit and sued Michael for $47,000 in unpaid fees. |
| 19 | years ago | 2006 | Prince wins a lifetime achievement award at the Webby online awards for his use of the Internet to distribute music and connect with audiences. The 47-year-old pop star was the first major artist to release an entire album, 1997’s Crystal Ball, exclusively on the Web. At the time of the award, Prince’s Web site has more than seven full-length CDs of music unavailable elsewhere. |