1985 Red Hot Chili Peppers release the cocaine-fueled funk album Freaky Styley, produced by Parliament-Funkadelic founder George Clinton, and welcome back guitarist Hillel Slovak.More
1980 "A Thousand Miles" singer Vanessa Carlton is born in Milford, Pennsylvania.
1972 Emily Robison of the The Chicks is born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
1969 CBS premieres the sitcom The Debbie Reynolds Show, starring the Singin' in the Rain actress.
1969 The Beckenham Arts Lab holds the Free Festival in Beckenham, London. One one of the performers is David Bowie, who memorializes the concert in his song "Memory of a Free Festival." The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.
1969 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young perform together for the first time, playing two shows at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Their next gig comes two days later when they take the stage at Woodstock.
1968 The Jackson 5 play their first concert, opening for Diana Ross and the Supremes at the Forum in Los Angeles.
1966 The Monkees release their first single, "Last Train To Clarksville." It's a lighthearted-sounding song with a somber subtext: The lyric is about a guy who gets drafted into the Vietnam War and wonders if he's ever coming home.
1962 Peter, Paul, and Mary release "If I Had A Hammer."
1960 Drummer Chris Pedersen (of Camper Van Beethoven and Monks of Doom) is born in Great Lakes, Illinois.
1957 Buddy Holly's group The Crickets play the first show of a six-night engagement at Harlem's Apollo Theater. They were booked due to confusion with a black group (led by Dean Barlow) that was also called The Crickets. Nonetheless, Holly and his band win over the crowd.
1957 INXS lead guitarist Tim Farriss is born in Perth, Western Australia.
1953 James "J.T." Taylor (lead singer for Kool & the Gang) is born in Laurens, South Carolina.
1949 Scott Asheton (drummer for The Stooges) is born in Washington, D.C.
1948 Barry Hay (frontman for Golden Earring) is born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
The King is dead. Elvis Presley dies at his home in Graceland as a result of an overdose from prescription drugs.
Read more2018 Aretha Franklin dies after a long battle with pancreatic cancer at age 76.More
1986 At a soggy Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington, England, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen gets a huge ovation when he takes the stage with the band. Twenty months earlier, Allen's left arm was severed in a car accident, and after extensive rehab and some warm-up gigs, he makes a triumphant return at the festival, playing barefoot behind a drum kit modified with electronic pedals. Scorpions and Motörhead are also on the bill, which is headlined by Ozzy Osbourne.
1969 It's Day 2 of Woodstock, featuring performances by the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin and Santana. One memorable moment comes during The Who's set, when the activist Abbie Hoffman interrupts their set and grabs the microphone. After saying a few words about fellow activist John Sinclair, Pete Townshend hits him with his guitar.
1969 Eric Clapton's supergroup Blind Faith release their self-titled album. On the cover is a photo of a naked 11-year-old girl holding a model spacecraft.More
1967 After playing a midnight show at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, Louis Armstrong heads to United Recording Studios, where he records "What a Wonderful World" in a session that ends around 6 a.m.
1962 Stevie Wonder's first single is released: "I Call It Pretty Music (But Old People Call It The Blues)." Motown newbie Marvin Gaye plays drums on the track.
1962 Pete Best is fired as drummer for The Beatles, replaced by Ringo Starr. The group's manager Brian Epstein does the firing by calling Best into his record shop and giving him the bad news.
1958 Madonna Louise Ciccone is born in Bay City, Michigan. Shortening her name to a mononym, she becomes the best-selling female singer of all time.More
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