1945 Don Reid (lead singer of The Statler Brothers) is born in Staunton, Virginia.
1942 The musical film Yankee Doodle Dandy is released. Starring James Cagney, the film features the song "The Yankee Doodle Boy," based upon "Yankee Doodle," a long-time standard American anthem.
1942 Capitol Records' first recording session takes place when "The General Jumped at Dawn" by Paul Whiteman's New Yorker Hotel Orchestra is recorded at Radio Recorders Studio in Los Angeles. The record flops, but Capitol soon becomes the most successful record company of the era.
1937 R&B singer Floyd Butler (of The Friends Of Distinction) is born in California.
1932 Pete Jolly is born in New Haven, Connecticut. The jazz pianist and accordionist is known for his work in film and television, including The Love Boat, M*A*S*H, and Dallas.
1925 Singer/actor Bill Hayes is born in Harvey, Illinois. Known for his long-running role as Doug Williams on Days of Our Lives and his chart-topping rendition of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."
1922 Jazz drummer Gordon "Specs" Powell is born in New York.
1826 German composer Carl Maria von Weber dies of tuberculosis at age 39.
Tom Cruise stars as rocker Stacee Jaxx in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Rock of Ages, an homage to '80s rock and glam metal that features songs from Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Pat Benatar, and Journey.
Read more2004 Jennifer Lopez marries Marc Anthony. The union lasts 10 years and produces two children: twins Max and Emme.
2002 Eleven weeks after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dee Dee Ramone, a founding member of the Ramones, dies of a heroin overdose at age 50.
2002 R. Kelly is indicted on 21 counts of child pornography, accused of coercing underage girls into sexual acts.More
1993 Mariah Carey marries Tommy Mottola, the music executive who signed her to Columbia Records. The marriage, her first, lasts four years.
1983 U2 play the Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado. Despite rain, the concert is intimate and energetic; it is later released as a concert film called Under a Blood Red Sky.
1968 Senator Robert Kennedy is shot three times while exiting through a kitchen at a hotel where he delivered a speech after winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. This event prompts David Crosby to write "Long Time Gone" and The Rolling Stones to insert the lyrics, "Who killed the Kennedys?" to their new song "Sympathy For The Devil."
1959 Robert Zimmerman graduates from Hibbing High School in Minnesota. He moves on to the University of Minnesota, but soon leaves for New York City to become the full-time folk singer, Bob Dylan.
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