| 82 | years ago | 1944 | It Never Rains in Southern California singer Albert Hammond is born in London, England. He grows up in the English territory of Gibralter on the Mediterranean. |
| 77 | years ago | 1949 | Rick Wakeman, keyboardist with Yes, is born. |
| 63 | years ago | 1963 | The Beatles kick off their first headlining tour with a concert at the Grenada Theatre in Slough, England. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | The Turtles' Greatest Hits passes the six-month mark on the album chart. The collection was certified gold April 12. |
| 58 | years ago | 1968 | $6 gets you into the Miami Pop Festival to see The Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, James Cotton, Richie Havens, The Box Tops, Frank Zappa, and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs |
| 55 | years ago | 1971 | The Band launches its first European tour in Rotterdam, Holland. It concludes June 3 at London's Royal Albert Hall. |
| 54 | years ago | 1972 | The New York Times reports the former Beatles have agreed to end their feuding. In addition, Paul McCartney claims the four have decided to split their fortune resulting from their partnership. The four ex-Beatles came to this solution, he explains, to free $17 million now frozen in litigation. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | The Buddy Holly Story, a film starring Gary Busey as Holly, has its world premiere in Dallas. The movie will be a critical and commercial success. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Guns ’n’ Roses’ Axl Rose and designer Tommy Hilfiger cap off a Thursday night out at Manhattan’s new club called The Plum with a fistfight. Axl says it started when he moved Tommy’s girlfriend’s drink so it wouldn’t spill. Tommy reportedly smacked Axl in the arm and told him to put it back. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Jonny Van Zant gets his inflamed appendix removed during emergency surgery at Stanfor University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. He had performed in pain both previous nights. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Singer Neil Diamond is suing next-door neighbor Marianne Nestor, the widow of fashion designer Oleg Cassini, over what he says is illegal construction taking place on the roof of her building. Diamond says he owns the top-floor apartment of the five-story building at 17 E. 63rd St. in New York, which gives him exclusive use of the rooftop. He says he undertook extensive renovations of the apartment and roof “to create a serene environment” for himself. During the renovations, Diamond saw a large copper-clad structure and steel beams being erected on the roof of the five-story building next door at 15 E. 63rd St., owned by Nestor, Cassini's third wife, and her sister Peggy Nestor. He alleges the work was done without proper permits, and that the structure, apparently the base for an air conditioning unit, illegally adds 13 feet to the height to the building. |
| 19 | years ago | 2007 | This day's issue of Rolling Stone magazine quotes actor Johnny Depp on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards: “He’s one of the people I've admired for what he’s done and how he’s handled it. Forty years of being this god. And he’s just cool.” Richards plays the father of Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow, in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End in theaters at the time. |
| 6 | years ago | 2020 | The estranged wife of the Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson's is found dead by ambulance crews wearing protective suits following a “tragic accident.” Paddy Bowden, 59, whose real name was Patrice, was found dead at their former £3million marital home in Chiswick, West London at 10am this morning after emergency services were called to reports of a person being “unwell.” |