| 98 | years ago | 1928 | Jazz trumpeter and band leader Maynard Ferguson is born. |
| 89 | years ago | 1937 | Surf guitarist Dick Dale is born. |
| 84 | years ago | 1942 | Singer-songwriter Nick Ashford is born. |
| 75 | years ago | 1951 | Jacki Jackson of The Jacksons is born. |
| 69 | years ago | 1957 | Alan Freed premieres his half-hour, Alan Freed Show on ABC-TV. His guests include Guy Mitchell, the Del-Vikings, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the Clovers, June Valli, Martha Carson, and the Alan Freed Rock & Roll Orchestra. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | Dick Clark announces the first movie from his recently formed production company Drexel Films Corp. It's called Harrison High and reportedly has Fabian and Bobby Darin up for the lead role. |
| 67 | years ago | 1959 | The winners of the first annual Grammy Awards are announced. Domenico Modugno's Volare is Record of the Year; Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn is Album of the Year, and the Champs Tequila wins for best R&B performance. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | The Beach Boys Surfin U.S.A. LP debuts on the chart. |
| 62 | years ago | 1964 | The Moody Blues are formed in Birmingham, England. Their second single, Go Now, will be #1 in the U.K. and #10 in the U.S. early next year. |
| 59 | years ago | 1967 | The Turtles receive their first of two gold singles, for their recent #1 pop hit, Happy Together. Their second gold single will come with She'd Rather Be with Me. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | Welsh singer Mary Hopkin appears on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks, where she's spotted by model Twiggy, who recommends her to Paul McCartney. He will sign her to Apple Records and produce her biggest seller, Those Were the Days. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | Richard Tapper, drummer for L.A. rock band TIME (Trust in Men Everywhere) is critically hurt when two gunmen shoot him three times in the mid-section as he is on his way to a jam session at the L.A. club Thee Experience. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Four students at Kent university are killed and eleven wounded by National Guard troops at a campus demonstration protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War. The incident inspires Neil Young to compose Ohio, which becomes a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | Green Day’s Mike Dirnt is born. |
| 53 | years ago | 1973 | Led Zeppelin opens its 1973 U.S. tour, which is billed as the “biggest and most profitable rock & roll tour in the history of the United States.” A group spokesman predicts the group will gross over $3 million. |
| 50 | years ago | 1976 | KISS performs its first concert in its hometown of New York City. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Jefferson Starship receives a platinum record for what will be its last LP with Grace Slick and Marty Balin. Just a few weeks later, both are gone and the band has to be revamped. |
| 47 | years ago | 1979 | N*SYNC’s Lance Bass is born. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Paul Butterfield dies due to complications of a drug overdose. He was 44 years old. |
| 27 | years ago | 1999 | Toto is inducted into Hollywood's Rock Walk in front of the Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | Online Casino Golden Palace tells the Associated Press it paid $5,001 to buy Britney Spears’ home pregnancy test from Ottawa radio station Hot 89.9, which reportedly retrieved the positve test from the trash outside Britney’s Los Angeles hotel room several months earlier. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | Beastie Boy Adam Yauch dies at age 47 after a three-year cancer battle. |