24 AUGUST
Featured Events
1998 Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats and Live Aid fame begins hosting a show on the London radio station XFM. In his first broadcast, he announces (incorrectly) that Ian Dury has died.More
1995 Microsoft launches the Windows 95 operating system. The start-up music is composed by Brian Eno, a pioneer in ambient music who in 1978 released an album designed to soothe travelers at airports (Ambient 1: Music for Airports).More
1990 Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey until they agree not to play the US national anthem before the show.More
1981 Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon, is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He is repeatedly denied parole.
1981 The Rolling Stones release Tattoo You. The big hit from the album is "Start Me Up," which they first recorded with a reggae rhythm in 1977. That version was scrapped, but they rocked it up for Tattoo You with better results.
1979 The Ramones' movie Rock & Roll High School opens in theaters. The title song becomes one of their classics, and the film gains a cult following.More
1974 Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby" hits #1 for the first of three weeks despite condemnation from feminist groups.More
24 AUGUST
In Music History
2021 Thirty years after appearing as a baby grasping for a dollar bill on Nirvana's Nevermind album cover, Spencer Elden sues the band and others associated with the photo shoot, claiming it caused him "extreme and permanent emotional distress."
2019 Billie Eilish ends a 19-week run at #1 for "Old Town Road" when "Bad Guy" claims the top spot on the Hot 100.
2016 Jeanne Martin, ex-wife of the late Dean Martin, dies of cancer at age 89. She married the singer in 1949, and gave birth to three children, including Dean Paul Martin, in addition to raising four more from Dean's first marriage. They divorced in 1972.
2014 Doo-wop singer Tommy Gough (of The Crests) dies of throat cancer at age 74.
2013 "Royals" by Lorde goes to #1 on the Alternative chart, making her the first female solo artist to top that tally since Tracy Bonham did it in 1996 (five months before Lorde was born) with "Mother Mother."
2013 The Civil Wars, the folk duo of Joy Williams and John Paul White, hit #1 in America with their self-titled sophomore album, but split up without ever performing songs from the set.
2012 Country singer Randy Travis continues his string of calamitous arrests, this time for a brawl at a church in Texas where he was purportedly fighting over a woman. The incident leads to him being cited for assault, giving him another citation to add to his collection. It's still a cheaper hobby than baseball cards.
2010 Teenage Dream, Katy Perry's second major-label album, is released. It goes to #1 in the US, where the first five singles, starting with "California Gurls," all top the Hot 100.
2008 Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson emerges unscathed after he crashes his Cessna 206 float-plane near Bancroft, Ontario. Three other passengers, including wife Natalie, are also miraculously uninjured. The Transportation Safety Board is unable to determine the cause of the crash, but clears Robertson of any wrongdoing.
2007 During a routine medical exam in Gainesville, Florida, Bo Diddley complains of dizziness and nausea and is admitted to a local hospital, where he is diagnosed as having had a heart attack. The rock legend had suffered a stroke only a few months earlier.
2007 Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders opens Mark Lindsay's Rock And Roll Cafe in his native Portland, Oregon. The restaurant closes the next year.
2005 Hal Kalin (of the Kalin Twins) dies after a car accident in Charles County, Maryland, at age 71.
2003 Dick Peterson from The Kingsmen joins 753 other guitarists to perform "Louie Louie" for a charity fundraiser in Tacoma, Washington.
1999 Big Band trombonist Warren Covington dies at age 78 in New York City.
1998 53-year-old Ingrid Pedersen announces that she is the long-lost illegitimate half-sister of John Lennon, explaining that she kept her secret for so many years as a way of protecting her now-deceased adoptive parents.
Beijing 2008: Jimmy Page's Proudest Non-Zep Moment
2008Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page perform during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium (also known as the Bird's Nest). The duo perform the Led Zeppelin classic "Whole Lotta Love."
The performance is frowned upon by many Led Zeppelin fans, who consider the collaboration between the legendary guitarist and the 2006 British X Factor winner to have tarnished the brand. For his part, Page describes the rendition of "Whole Lotta Love" as his proudest non-Zeppelin moment. He later gushes about Lewis's performance: "She's really plucky, she's superb, and she sang 'Whole Lotta Love" brilliantly. We managed to do the full length of 'Whole Lotta Love' – it wasn't edited – and she sang it beautifully." There are some slight changes to the lyrics to make the song more appropriate for a female singer (not to mention the conservative Chinese audience), with Lewis singing the altered line "gonna give you every bit of my love" rather than the original "inch." The performance is part of an eight-minute segment in the closing ceremony of the Beijing games, in which China formally hands over the Olympic baton to the United Kingdom for the 2012 Olympics. In a celebration of all things British, Lewis sings on stilts and Page plays his Les Paul on top of a traditional British red bus - all while soccer player David Beckham kicks a ball at the side of a stage. Despite taking part in this unusual show, Page is not invited to perform at the lavish London 2012 opening ceremony - about which he is said to be extremely disappointed.
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