| 96 years ago (1929) | Singer Sonny James is born. |
| 86 years ago (1939) | Folk and pop singer Judy Collins is born. |
| 71 years ago (1954) | Ray Parker, Jr. is born. |
| 60 years ago (1965) | Herman's Hermits reach #1 on the U.S. pop chart with Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter. |
| 60 years ago (1965) | The Supremes' Back In My Arms Again is released. |
| 59 years ago (1966) | The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who perform at the New Musical Express' poll winners' show in London. This will be the last live U.K. performance by The Beatles. |
| 59 years ago (1966) | Johnny Colt, bass player for The Black Crowes, is born in Cherry Point, North Carolina. |
| 58 years ago (1967) | Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu, daughter of a U.S. army colonel, in Las Vegas. |
| 54 years ago (1971) | The Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar is released. |
| 52 years ago (1973) | Bachman-Turner Overdrive, featuring former Guess Who guitarist Randy Bachman, releases its first LP. The album takes six months to chart and it's a year before the first single Let it Ride, becomes a Top 25 hit. |
| 50 years ago (1975) | With their first big hit single, Lady, still on the chart, Styx earns it first gold record for the 1973 album Styx II. |
| 50 years ago (1975) | The Rolling Stones announce their Tour of the Americas '75 in New York City. It's first done by way of an incomprehensible monologue by comedian Professor Irwin Corey and then by playing Brown Sugar on the back of a flatbed truck moving down Fifth avenue. |
| 48 years ago (1977) | The Clash start their first tour of the U.K. with a May Day celebration at the Roxy in London. The 40 day White Riot Tour brings a show to London's Rainbow Theater. The audience gets wild, ripping out seats bolted to the floor to make room for dancing. The news media sees it as a fulfillment of the tour's billing and describe the incident as a riot. |
| 46 years ago (1979) | Elton John becomes the first pop music star to perform in Israel. In three weeks, he will become the first Western solo pop performer to tour Russia. |
| 41 years ago (1984) | Mick Fleetwood files for bankruptcy in the U.S. |
| 39 years ago (1986) | Hugo Peretti of Hugo and Luigi dies of natural causes. He was 68 years old. |
| 37 years ago (1988) | Billy Joel escapes punishment for defamation charges brought against him by Jack Powers, whom he called a creep during an interview with Playboy magazine. The judge cited the 1st Amendment and dropped all charges. |
| 36 years ago (1989) | Police in California are called to a jewelry store after employees reported a suspicious person who turned out to be pop star Michael Jackson shopping in disguise. |
| 26 years ago (1999) | The Paintings of Paul McCartney exhibit opens at the Lyz Art Forum in Siegen, Germany. The exhibit features some 70 paintings by the former Beatle, including a piece called Bowie Spewing, McCartney's representation of a young David Bowie. |
| 25 years ago (2000) | A $1.8 million civil fraud suit is filed against Neil Young in Los Angeles Superior Court by a former Village Voice writer who claims Young reneged on an agreement to have a biography written about him when Young blocked the book's publication. |
| 19 years ago (2006) | British rocker Pet Doherty of the Babyshambles is released on bail by police investigating tabloid photos showing him injecting himself and a woman with drugs. The pictures were taken in his London home sometime in the preceding five weeks. |
| 16 years ago (2009) | Coldplay says it will reward recession-weary fans by giving away a free CD at all their shows this year. The 9-track disc is LeftRightLeftRightLeft, and is also made available as a free download on the band’s Web site. Their tour starts 15 days later in West Palm Beach, Florida with tickets starting at $60. |
| 13 years ago (2012) | Memphis guitarist Charles “Skip” Pitts, who played the memorable guitar riffs in Isaac Hayes' Shaft and and the Isley Brothers' It’s Your Thing, dies of cancer at age 65. |