| 90 | years ago | 1936 | Roy Orbison is born in Vernon, Texas. |
| 70 | years ago | 1956 | Elvis Presley, accompanied by Bill Black and Scotty Moore, makes his Las Vegas debut at the New Frontier Hotel, where he is the opening act for the Freddie Martin Orchestra and comedian Shecky Greene. The two-week run is called off after only one week due to poor reception; Presley won't play Las Vegas again for almost 13 years. |
| 61 | years ago | 1965 | The Rolling Stones begin their third North American tour with a show at the Forum in Montreal. |
| 57 | years ago | 1969 | The Ash Grove, a Los Angeles folk-blues club where such performers as Canned Heat, the Chambers Brothers and Taj Mahal got their acts going, burns down. However a new incarnation of the club opens on the Santa Monica Pier in 1996. |
| 56 | years ago | 1970 | Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky goes gold. |
| 51 | years ago | 1975 | Peter Ham, guitarist and songwriter for Badfinger, hangs himself in his London garage. He was reported to be deeply depressed by financial problems the group was having. He was 27 years old. |
| 48 | years ago | 1978 | Ex-Sex Pistol bass player Sid Vicious films his rendition of Paul Anka's My Way for the Sex Pistols' film The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle. |
| 45 | years ago | 1981 | Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins reunite in Stuttgart, Germany and record what is later released next year as The Survivors. |
| 39 | years ago | 1987 | Carole King sues record company owner Lou Adler for breach of contract. King claims that she was owed over $400,000 in royalties. She also asks for rights to her old recordings. |
| 35 | years ago | 1991 | Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls dies from a drug overdose in New Orleans at the age of 38. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | The four original members of The Meters (Art Neville, George Porter, Jr., Leo Nocentelli, and Joseph ’Zigaboo” Modeliste) reunite at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It’s their first time together since a sold-out show at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco in November, 2000. James Taylor also performs a slightly different brand of music, same time, different stage at JazzFest. |
| 21 | years ago | 2005 | The BBC reports that John Entwistle's skeleton has sold at auction. Actually, both of them. A pair of skeletons said to have been used by The Who bassist to play pranks on houseguests sold for $840 at an auction near his home in England. On sale were more than 700 items that belonged to Entwistle, who died at 57 after a heart attack in June 2002. A pinball machine fetched $2,800, no doubt thanks to The Who's classic song Pinball Wizard. Other items revealed Entwistle's eccentric tastes: A snakeskin-covered tambourine went for $305 and a stained-glass chess board decorated with Union Jacks and swastikas fetched $1,500. “It was sad to see this stuff go, but we've got no room,” said Entwistle's son, Chris. |
| 20 | years ago | 2006 | Florida police pull over a white Mercedes doing 60 in a 45 miles-per-hour zone. The driver is Jeff Timmons of 90's boy band 98 Degrees. Mitch English, host of the syndicated TV show The Daily Buzz is one of two passengers in the car. They all seem to police to be “very intoxicated,” so Timmons is arrested and charged with drunken driving and driving without a valid driver’s license. He posts the $500 bond the same day. |
| 15 | years ago | 2011 | Brian McKnight brings his velevty voice to New Orleans, playing the UNO Lakefront Arena in a one-man show. Just his voice, his guitar, and his piano. |
| 14 | years ago | 2012 | This week, People magazine names singer Beyonce Knowles the “World's Most Beautiful Woman.” Last year, it was Jennifer Lopez. |