1944 Vivian "Viv" Prince (drummer for The Pretty Things) is born in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England.
1939 Billy Henderson, a founding member of The Spinners, is born in Detroit, Michigan.
1934 Country singer-songwriter Merle Kilgore is born in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Co-wrote "Ring of Fire" with June Carter Cash.
1995Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead dies from a heart attack at age 53. His voice fills the airwaves as millions of Deadheads mourn.
Read more1995 The original members of Kiss play together for the first time since 1980 when Peter Criss and Ace Frehley join the current band to record their MTV Unplugged special, which is later released as the album Kiss Unplugged. Not counting Ace Frehley's 1976 wedding, it also marks the only time the original members have performed without makeup. The appearance goes over so well that Criss and Frehley rejoin the band in 1996, replacing Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer. The subsequent outing becomes the top-grossing tour that year.
1986 At the Knebworth Park Festival in England, Queen play their last concert with Freddie Mercury, who dies five years later. An audience of 120,000 hears them close out with "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" and "God Save The Queen."
1975 "Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees goes to #1 in the US, becoming their first disco chart-topper. It holds the position for two weeks.
1963 Whitney Houston is born in Newark, New Jersey, to gospel/soul singer Cissy Houston and John Russell Houston Jr. After years in the background as a session singer, she releases her self-titled debut album in 1985. Thanks to smash hits like "How Will I Know," "Saving All My Love For You," and "The Greatest Love Of All," she breaks through MTV's color barrier as one of the first Black female artists to achieve heavy rotation on the network.
1961 The movie Come September, starring first-time actor Bobby Darin and his wife Sandra Dee, opens in theaters. The pair met on set and married after a whirlwind romance.
1949 In New York, Louis Jordan records "Saturday Night Fish Fry," a #1 R&B hit for 12 weeks.
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