1987 Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, who had been found guilty of accepting bribes, pulls out a gun and kills himself at a press conference, inspiring the Filter song "Hey Man Nice Shot."
1985 Singer/songwriter Orianthi Panagaris is born in Adelaide, Australia. She was slated to be Michael Jackson's lead guitarist for his This Is It concert series.
1983 Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders and Ray Davies of The Kinks have a daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde. They following year, Hynde marries Jim Kerr of Simple Minds.
1982 Alabama releases "Mountain Music."
1981 Pop singer/actress Willa Ford is born Amanda Lee Williford in Ruskin, Florida. She performs as Mandah but to avoid confusion with Mandy Moore, she settles on a variation of her surname.
1977 Wings' album Wings Over America hits #1 in the US.
1977 Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" hits #1 in America.
1977 Singer-songwriters James Taylor and Carly Simon celebrate the birth of their second child, son Ben Taylor. Ben later becomes a singer-songwriter, and sometimes has both his mother and father tour with him, and on occasions, his older sister, Sally.
1974 Carly Simon's album Hotcakes is certified Gold.
1972 Don McLean's album American Pie hits #1 in the US, where it stays for seven weeks. It's a hasty ascent for McLean, whose previous album stalled at #111.
1971 The Joe Cocker film Mad Dogs and Englishmen, featuring performances by Cocker, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge, and others, premieres in London.
1969 Billy Preston arrives at Apple Studios, where he helps The Beatles complete the Let It Be album. Preston gives them a musical jolt but more importantly provides a buffer for their infighting - George Harrison had quit the group 12 days earlier.
1968 Apple Corps (home of the boutique and the label) opens its offices at 5 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, London.
1967 Breaking with a British television tradition, The Rolling Stones refuse to appear on the revolving stage during the finale of ITV's Sunday Night at the London Palladium.
1966 After a rare snowstorm in Memphis, Elvis Presley and his cohorts build a snowman outside of his Graceland mansion.
The John Lennon tribute issue of Rolling Stone is published with the famous Annie Leibovitz photo of a naked Lennon embracing a fully-clothed Yoko Ono. Lennon's full interview is not published by the magazine until 2010.
Read more1989 Metallica's first music video, for "One," makes its debut. Running 7:44, it incorporates footage from the 1971 war movie Johnny Got His Gun.
1985 In his annual list of the Worst-Dressed Women, designer/fashion critic Mr. Blackwell names Cher the Worst of 1984, writing that she "has little or less respect for being a woman." Cyndi Lauper comes in at #4 ("looks like the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake"), and rounding out the list in a tie for #10 are Dee Snider of Twisted Sister ("a car crash in a whorehouse) and Prince ("a toothpick wrapped in a purple doily").
1984 What goes better with football than Barry Manilow? The "Mandy" singer performs the national anthem at Superbowl XVIII in Tampa, Florida. Disney handles the halftime show.
1972 In an interview with Melody Maker, David Bowie says, "I'm gay and I always have been."
1949 Steve Perry is born in Hanford, California. He becomes Journey's lead singer in 1977, debuting on Infinity, their fourth album. His songwriting chops and instantly identifiable vocals help Journey become one of the top bands of the '80s. He and the band part ways in 1998 when Perry develops a hip condition that keeps him from touring.
1931 Sam Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He grows up in Chicago, where at six years old he forms the group the Singing Children with his siblings.
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