2023 French fashion icon Jane Birkin, who sang with Serge Gainsbourg on the racy number "Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus," dies at 76. She's the namesake of the Birkin Bag, a symbol of luxury mentioned in many rap songs, most famously "'03 Bonnie And Clyde" by Jay-Z.
2022 Jennifer Lopez marries Ben Affleck at a quickie wedding in Las Vegas. The couple were engaged in 2002 and had a lavish ceremony planned, but they called it off. They started dating again in 2021 after Lopez' marriage to Marc Anthony and Affleck's marriage to Jennifer Garner ended.
2021 Biz Markie, the "clown prince of hip-hop," dies at 57. He's best known for his 1989 hit "Just a Friend."
2014 Blues rocker Johnny Winter dies at age 70.
2012 Jon Lord, a founding member of Deep Purple, dies at age 71 of a pulmonary embolism while suffering from pancreatic cancer.
2009 At the Latitude Festival, held every year in Henham Park in Suffolk, England, Noah and the Whale debut their feature-length film The First Days of Spring. The film accompanies their new record of the same name due out in August. Written and directed by lead singer Charlie Fink, the film stars model Daisy Lowe, the daughter of fashion designer Pearl Lowe and Gavin Rossdale, lead singer for the alt-rock band Bush.
2008 Jo Stafford, whose "You Belong To Me" made her the first female artist to hit #1 on the UK Chart, dies of congestive heart failure at age 90.
2003 Cuban singer Celia Cruz dies of brain cancer at age 77.
2002 After unfinished tracks from their shelved project The Lillywhite Sessions are leaked on the internet, Dave Matthews Band reworks the songs and release them as Busted Stuff.More
2001 Kid Rock's album Devil Without A Cause goes Diamond, selling over 10 million albums in America. His previous three albums sold maybe 50,000 copies combined, mostly in the Detroit area.
1996 Styx drummer John Panozzo dies at age 47 when his liver fails after years of drinking.
1995 At North Carolina's Duke University Medical Center, Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds undergoes an operation to remove a brain tumor.
1990 Trial begins for Judas Priest after they are accused of implanting subliminal messages in their song "Better By You, Better Than Me." The suit alleges that the messages caused two teenage boys to enter a suicide pact (one of the boys killed himself instantly; the other died three years later from complications related to the suicide attempt). The case is dismissed August 24 after the judge determines that the supposed subliminal message is just an accidental recording oddity.
1984 Billy Williams dies of a heart attack at age 74. His group the Billy Williams Quartet was a fixture on Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's "Your Show of Shows" in the '50s.
1983 Twenty of the songs in the US Top 40 are by British acts, the most since 1965. The Police are at #1 with "Every Breath You Take," followed by Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue."
"Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO hits #1 after first appearing on the Hot 100 on February 12 at #78. Thanks to a captivating video, the song starts the "shufflin'" dance craze and spends a staggering 68 weeks on the chart (six at #1), which is longer than any other chart-topper.
Read more2022 Two songs from the '80s land in the US Top 40: "Master Of Puppets" by Metallica (#40) and "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush (#4). Both songs were revived by season 4 of Stranger Things, where they're used in battle against the evil Vecna.
2008 Billy Joel bids goodbye to Flushing, New York's iconic Shea Stadium with the first of two star-studded concerts. Sadly, this is the highlight of the Mets' season.
1996 The Sultan of Brunei, the world's richest man, marks his 50th birthday with a Michael Jackson concert on the Borneo Island. Jackson earns about $15 million for the performance, which is free to the 60,000 in attendance.
1981 Harry Chapin dies in a car crash at age 38.
1967 Arlo Guthrie debuts "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. The song runs 18 minutes long and tells a true (but greatly exaggerated) story about how he was arrested one Thanksgiving morning for illegal dumping. The ticket later made him ineligible for the draft, keeping him out of the Vietnam War. Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, and Tom Paxton also play the festival this day.
1966 A supergroup is born as former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton teams up with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker of the Graham Bond Organization to form Cream. They break up just three years later, but leave a lasting impact that earns them induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
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