24 JULY
In Music History
1972 Bobby Ramirez, the 24-year-old drummer with Edgar Winter's White Trash, is beaten to death in a Chicago barroom brawl after a patron complains about the length of Ramirez's hair.
1971 The Raiders' "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) hits #1.
1968 Jimmy Drake, known as Nervous Norvus, dies from cirrhosis of the liver at age 56.
1967 In response to their friend John Hopkins being sentenced to nine months in jail for marijuana possession, The Beatles take out full-page ad in The Times of London calling for legalization of the drug. "The law against marijuana is immoral in principle and unworkable in practice," it reads.
1967 Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow LP is certified gold.
1965 Bob Dylan charts for the first time as an artist in the US when "Like A Rolling Stone" enters at #91. A handful of his songs have already been hits as covered by other artists, most notably the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary version of "Blowin' In The Wind."
1964 Marvin Gaye records "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You." Written by the Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the title comes from one of Jackie Gleason's catch phrases.
1961 Paul Geary (co-founder and drummer of Extreme) is born in Medford, Massachusetts.
1957 Pat Boone makes his acting debut in the musical comedy Bernardine. The movie also features his hit songs "Love Letters In The Sand" and "Bernardine."
1956 Ten years to the day after their act began, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis break up their wildly popular musical-comedy act after a farewell show at New York's Copacabana nightclub.
1954 The Four Aces' "Three Coins In The Fountain" hits #1.
1948 Drummer Kim Berly, of The Stampeders, is born Kimball Meyer in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada.
1947 Drummer Alan Whitehead, of Marmalade, is born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.
1944 Guitarist Jim Armstrong, of Them, is born in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
1942 Bassist and singer Heinz Burt, of The Tornados, is born in Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Beatles-Based Movie Is A Box Office Bomb
1978The film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band opens in America, and it tanks hard. Savaged by critics, it becomes a legendary Hollywood flop despite appearances by Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Aerosmith and The Bee Gees.
Read more24 JULY
Featured Events
2001 Bob Seger's boat Lightning (named because a previous boat was struck by lightning) wins its division in the 291-mile Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race in Michigan with a time of 30 hours, 34 minutes, 42 seconds. Seger is one of 11 crew members on board.
1999 On the third day of the Woodstock '99 festival on Griffiss Air Force Base, overpriced water, overflowing toilets and a Limp Bizkit performance of "Break Stuff" lead to riots, groping and injuries. Conditions deteriorate as the festival rages on, and by the final day, MTV is covering the event with the tagline "Apocalypse Woodstock."
1999 The rapper Treach (Anthony Criss) from Naughty by Nature ("O.P.P.") marries Pepa (Sandra Denton) of Salt-N-Pepa in a ceremony officiated by Reverend Run of Run-D.M.C., who says it's the first time a rapper has married two rappers. Among the guests are Salt, Queen Latifah and Vivica A. Fox. The couple divorce in 2001, with Pepa alleging abuse.
1987 The movie La Bamba, a somewhat fictionalized biography of Latin rock star Ritchie Valens, opens in the US. It's generally well received, especially the soundtrack by Los Lobos. Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Valens, who died in the infamous plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper; Marshall Crenshaw appears as Buddy Holly and Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochran.
1982 Thanks to its use in the movie Rocky III, "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor hits #1 for the first of six weeks.
1969 Jennifer Lopez is born to Puerto Rican parents in The Bronx in New York City.More
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